prep.
1) to have smt. ~ smb. ('to have evidence against smb.')
2) the fire went out ~ me ('the fire went out through no fault of mine')
3) we were ~ to what was happening ('we were aware of what was happening')
4) well ~ in years ('rather old')
We use '~' with dates and days:
- ~ 12 March
- ~ Friday(s)
- ~ Christmas Day (but 'at Christmas')
- ~ Friday morning(s)
- ~ Sunday afterno~s
- ~ M~day evening(s)
- ~ Saturday night(s) etc.
We use '~' in the following situati~s: ~ the ceiling/~ the wall/~ the floor/~ smb. nose/~ a page
- D~'t sit ~ the floor/~ the ground/~ the grass!
- Have you seen the notice ~ the notice-board?
- There's a report of the football match ~ page 7 of the newspaper.
- D~'t sit ~ that chair. It's broken, (but 'sit in an armchair' )
Note that we say: ~ the left/~ the right (or ~ the
left-/right-hand side)/ ~ the ground floor/~ the first
floor/~ the sec~d floor etc.
- In Britain we drive ~ the left. (or... ~ the left-
hand side)
We use '~' with small islands:
- Tom spent his holidays ~ a small island off the coast of Scotland.
We also say that a place is '~ the coast/~ a river/~ a road' :
- L~d~ is ~ the river Thames.
We say that a place is '~ the way to another place' :
- We stopped at a pretty village ~ the way to L~d~.
We say '~/at the corner of a street' (but 'in the corner of a room' ):
-There is a teleph~e box ~/at the corner of the street.
We say '~ the fr~t/~ the back of a letter/piece of paper' etc.:
- Write your name ~ the back of this piece of paper.
We say '~ a farm' :
- Have you ever worked ~ a farm?
We say 'to travel ~ foot' :
- Did you come here by car or ~ foot?
We use '~' for bicycles and public transport (buses, trains etc.): ~ my bicycle/~ the bus/~ the train/~ a big ship.
We say 'get ~/get off a bicycle, bus or train' :
- Quick! Get ~ the train. It's ready to leave.
We say '~ time' = punctual, not late. If something happens ~ time , it happens at the time which was planned:
- The 11.45 train left ~ time. (
= it left at 11.45
)
-The c~ference was very well organised. Everything began and finished ~ time.
We say
'to be/to go ~ holiday/ ~ business/ ~ a trip/~ a tour/ ~ an excursi~/ ~ a cruise/ ~ an expediti~' .
We say 'to be keen ~ something' :
- We stayed at home because Ann wasn't very keen ~ going out in the rain.
We say 'to c~centrate ~ something' :
- D~'t look out of the window. C~centrate ~ your work!
We say 'to depend ~ some~e/something' :
- What time will you arrive? I d~'t know. It depends ~ the traffic.
You can leave out '~' before questi~ words ( when/where/how etc.):
- 'Are you going to buy it?' 'It depends (~) how much it is.'
We say 'to live ~ m~ey/food' :
- George's salary is very low. It isn't enough to live ~.
We say 'to rely ~ some~e/something' :
- You can rely ~ Jack. He always keeps his promises.
We say 'to blame something ~ some~e/something' :
- Everybody blamed the accident ~ me.
We say 'to c~gratulate some~e ~ (doing) something' :
- When I heard that he had passed his examinati~, I ph~ed him to c~gratulate him ~ his success.
We say 'to spend (m~ey) ~ something' :
- How much m~ey do you spend ~ food each week?
Note that we usually say 'spend (time) doing something' :
- I spend a lot of time reading.