Last week we discussed three of the questions we were given to try in the previous week's lesson. Let's look at the remaining two questions.
4. Mr Oti punished Joojo and ---.
a) me b) I c) myself d) she
Here, the correct answer is me (a) because we understand Joojo and the pronoun to be the objects of the verb punished. In other words, Joojo and the pronoun are suffering from or receiving the action denoted by the verb punished, for which reason the pronoun should be in the object case, not subject case.
If you leave out the noun Joojo, you're likely to say or write:
Mr Oti punished me, not
Mr Oti punished I.
Note that in a situation where we have a noun and a pronoun as the objects of a verb, the pronoun must be in the object case.
Now, in this question, if you go for answer (b) or (d), it is incorrect because both I and she are in the subject case, and this means that the question is incorrect --- we CANNOT have two correct answers in an objective test.
5. We must congratulate Esi --- winning the contest.
a) for b) by c) on d) since
The correct answer here is on (c), not for (a), which most people would select.
In English, particular verbs match with particular prepositions, with some verbs matching with two or more prepositions in different contexts.
For instance, we have:
wave at, correspond with, familiar with, throw at/to, look at/for/on, believe in, wait for/on, agree with/to/on, draw attention to, create awareness of, sensitise to, pretend to, separate from, converge on, convey to, insist on, etc.
Remember that it is incorrect in English to select just any preposition to match with any verb especially if the selection is based on how well the preposition sounds to you.
It is on that basis that people write or say things such as:
The President waved to the crowd.
They congratulated him for coming first in the examination.
The students converged at the assembly hall.
All these sentences are incorrect because the prepositions do not match with the verbs.
While we are at it, we must learn that some verbs do not take prepositions at all.
These verbs include advocate, behove, stress, emphasise, comprise, etc.
So it is incorrect to write or say:
It behoves on us to change our attitude to work.
The committee comprises of 10 members.
Our leaders always emphasise on the importance of integrity.
Many people now advocate for women's empowerment.
In his submission, the pastor stressed on the need for sacrifice in the body of Christ.
(To be continued)
