Many short words can act as different parts of speech: prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs or pronouns (see p. 29). Instead of being grouped grammatically, the words are grouped here under more general headings to make it easier to find and correct mistakes.

Following a verb

Certain verbs are followed by particular prepositions. Some verbs alter their meanings with the preposition; compare is the verb most misused in this way. It can be helpful when trying to decide which preposition is correct to consider the nouns formed from the verbs (and vice versa). For instance, which is correct of different from, different to and different than? Most people using to differ say it differs from; thus different is usually followed by from not to. (Different than is American usage.)

COMPARE to or with?

Compare to means liken to. The example usually quoted is from Shakespeare's sonnet: ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?’ A comparison between one thing and another (or a number of others) is always one with another. Compare with also allows the consideration of both similarities and differences.

Both should be compared with (but see use of than below).

Drawback is not a good choice of word, particularly when discussing flaps. There is the joke:

Disadvantage is the required word.