Kirk Mahoney . com

Yesterday I wrote about days that I like to label as “Prepositions Gone Wild”.

Today I want to discuss the complement to this: what I like to label as “Prepositions Gone Missing”.

Again, I have to wonder when, where, why, and how American instruction about English prepositions went astray.

There seems to be a growing trend for many Americans to omit necessary prepositions.

And this trend seems to be consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. Omitting prepositions is simpler than including them.

The “Prepositions Gone Missing” label applies to any of these expressions:

• “arrived home”
• “graduated high school”
• “graduated college”
• “graduated university”

I wrote a blog post more than a year ago about “graduated college”. Similar discussions would apply for “graduated high school” and “graduated university”.

The travel-related use of the verb “arrive” requires a preposition between the verb and the destination.

Just as one does not “arrive the Moon” or “arrive England”, one does not “arrive home”.

Instead, one “arrives on the Moon”, “arrives in England”, or “arrives at home”.

Have you noticed any other common expressions with necessary prepositions that have been omitted? Please contact me, and I will write about them here!