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In English, prepositional verbs require a specific preposition to link the verb to its object correctly. Using the wrong preposition is one of the most common mistakes non-native professionals make.

	Prepositional Verb	Example Sentence
1	Account for	How do you account for the drop in Q3 sales?
2	Adapt to	Our team needs to adapt quickly to changing market demands.
3	Agree on / with	We agree on the target, but I don’t agree with the proposed approach.
4	Aim at / for	We are aiming for a 15% increase in annual recurring revenue.
5	Apologize for	She apologized for the delay in sending over the final deliverables.
6	Apply for	He decided to apply for the senior product manager role.
7	Approve of	The board does not approve of increasing the budget at this stage.
8	Belong to	These updated brand guidelines belong to the marketing division.
9	Collaborate with	We regularly collaborate with external design consultants.
10	Comment on	I’m not in a position to comment on the ongoing merger talks.
11	Commit to	Management committed to providing additional resources by Friday.
12	Communicate with	How often do you communicate with the stakeholders directly?
13	Comply with	All software updates must comply with regional data privacy laws.
14	Concentrate on	Let’s concentrate on solving the core user experience issue first.
15	Consist of	The audit panel will consist of three independent experts.
16	Contribute to	Strong cross-team communication contributed significantly to our success.
17	Cope with	How is your team coping with the sudden workload spike?
18	Deal with	Who is going to deal with the client’s technical complaints?
19	Decide on	We need to decide on a launch date before the end of the week.
20	Depend on	The project timeline depends on getting early feedback from users.
21	Focus on	Today we want to focus on our Q4 retention strategies.
22	Hear about / from	Have you heard from the vendor regarding the revised estimate?
23	Insist on	The client insists on having weekly video check-ins.
24	Invest in	It makes strategic sense to invest in internal training programs.
25	Lead to	Poor alignment during kickoff can lead to scope creep later on.
26	Listen to	We need to listen to user feedback before redesigning the workflow.
27	Look into	The security team promises to look into the system outage right away.
28	Object to	Does anyone object to moving the daily standup to 10 AM?
29	Participate in	Over fifty employees participated in the interactive workshop.
30	Pay for	The department will pay for your professional certification exam.
31	Prepare for	We are currently preparing for the upcoming quarterly review.
32	Provide with	Can you provide the team with the updated sales performance data?
33	Recover from	It took months for the operations unit to recover from the supply disruption.
34	Refer to	Please refer to section 3 of the agreement for warranty details.
35	Rely on	We heavily rely on automated tools for QA testing.
36	Remind of	That case study reminds me of a situation we faced two years ago.
37	Reply to	Please reply to all high-priority customer tickets within two hours.
38	Respond to	The manager took two days to respond to my proposal.
39	Result in	The process change resulted in a 20% reduction in turnaround time.
40	Search for	HR is currently searching for a qualified senior developer.
41	Specialize in	Our technical consultants specialize in cloud infrastructure migration.
42	Spend on	How much of our budget did we spend on paid user acquisition?
43	Subscribe to	Our company subscribes to several market research platforms.
44	Succeed in	They finally succeeded in landing the contract after weeks of negotiation.
45	Suffer from	Product delivery suffered from a lack of clear ownership across teams.
46	Talk about / to	I’ll talk to the director about expanding our team budget.
47	Think about / of	What do you think about testing this feature on a smaller segment?
48	Wait for	We are still waiting for sign-off from the legal department.
49	Work on / with	She is currently working on the pitch deck with our external design partner.
50	Worry about	You don’t need to worry about the presentation; the deck is ready.

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25 Speaking Practice Questions

These conversational questions use the most high-frequency verbs from the list above. Practice asking and answering them with a partner or aloud:

Workplace & Projects

1. How does your team deal with tight deadlines when priorities shift unexpectedly?
2. What key metrics do you focus on when evaluating a project’s success?
3. How long does it usually take to decide on a strategy for a new campaign?
4. Do you prefer to work on projects alone or collaborate with a larger team?
5. How does your manager respond to innovative or risky ideas from employees?

Meetings & Daily Communication

6. What’s the most effective way to prepare for an important client presentation?

7. How do you usually deal with interruptions during remote video meetings?

8. If someone objects to your proposal in front of stakeholders, how do you handle it?

9. What do you think about turning long status meetings into quick written updates?

10. How quickly are employees expected to reply to urgent messages after hours?

Career & Professional Growth

11. What made you decide to apply for your current role?

12. Does your company invest in continuous training and upskilling programs?

13. If you could specialize in any emerging skill or tool, what would it be?

14. What qualities make you rely on a colleague when working under high pressure?

15. What steps are you taking this year to aim for a promotion or expansion of responsibilities?

Problem Solving & Adaptation

16. How did your department adapt to hybrid or remote work environments?

17. Who do you talk to when you run into a technical blocker you can’t solve?

18. What kind of unexpected issues lead to project delays most often in your industry?

19. How do you cope with burnout during high-stress periods at work?

20. When something goes wrong, how do you look into the root cause without placing blame?

Strategy & Leadership

21. What factors do you depend on most when making quarterly financial forecasts?

22. How does leadership insist on quality control without slowing down production?

23. What should companies concentrate on to improve employee retention rates?

24. How do you ensure all team members comply with safety or privacy regulations?

25. What single accomplishment this month contributed to your team’s overall goals the most?