L'IDÉE À RETENIR

N'apprenez jamais ces verbes seuls. Stockez chaque verbe avec sa préposition comme un bloc : look after, pas look plus une règle.

Illustration aquarelle d'un carnet ouvert, de livres et de thé près d'une fenêtre ensoleillée
Un peu de contexte éclaire le sens.

01People: care, company, news

Relationships run on fixed pairs: take care of your health, look after the baby, get along with colleagues, hear from an old friend. Apologize for being late, thank them for coming. Notice that of, after, with, from, and for each attach to a specific verb — swapping them breaks the phrase, so memorize verb and partner together from the first meeting.

Who is looking after the baby tonight?

look after + person

Who is looking after the baby tonight?

Look after means to take care of someone.

02Resources: running out and keeping up

Resources have their own set: run out of milk, pay for dinner, wait for the bus, ask for help. And pace has its pair: keep up with the class, catch up with friends, keep up with the news. Out of always travels with run out — students who split them into run plus out lose the meaning entirely.

We have run out of milk again.

run out of + resource

We have run out of milk again.

Out of is inseparable from run out.

03Work and study: focus and finish

Study and work verbs bring academic partners: focus on quality, work on the project, graduate from university, apply for the job, prepare for the exam. Depend on the team, succeed in business, result in delays. Look forward to Friday keeps its surprising to — the whole phrase behaves like a noun phrase, so to stays.

She graduated from Cambridge in 2020.

graduate from + school

She graduated from Cambridge in 2020.

Graduate pairs with from, never with of or at.

04How to actually remember them

Keep a three-column notebook: verb + partner, one personal example, one review date. Write I ran out of time yesterday — your own sentences stick ten times better than textbook ones. Review each card after one day, one week, one month. Twenty pairs learned this way beat two hundred glanced at in a list.

À VOUS

Faites le lien.

Lisez la situation avant de choisir. Le pourquoi compte autant que la réponse.

Complete the fixed thank-you phrase.
MINI-TEST 1

Thank you ? coming to the meeting.

Complete the fixed thank-you phrase.

Choisissez une préposition. Découvrez le pourquoi.

Voir la réponse

for · Thank someone for something.

Name what the effort lands on.
MINI-TEST 2

The whole team is working ? the new launch.

Name what the effort lands on.

Choisissez une préposition. Découvrez le pourquoi.

Voir la réponse

on · Work on a project.

Pour aller plus loin

Nous créons ces exemples avec l'aide de l'IA. L'usage dépend du contexte ; ces schémas ne couvrent pas tout. Poursuivez avec les références.

Notre méthode · Suggérer une correction

Un peu de répétition. Un lien plus fort.

Poursuivez avec des exercices ciblés et la révision des erreurs dans l'appli.

Découvrir PrepoQuest