SIDE or SIDE WITH?

  Whenever there is a quarrel between us, my mum will always side my brother. 


When side is used to mean to support a person or group against another, it takes the preposition ‘with'. Therefore the standard version of the above sentence is:

Whenever there is a quarrel between us, my mum will always side with my brother. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AT THE OUTSKIRTS or ON THE OUTSKIRTS?

 • We live at the outskirts of Lagos.  The noun ‘outskirts’ ( the parts of a city or town that are furthest from the centre) takes the preposition ‘on'. So when rewritten, we have :  • We live on the outskirts of Lagos. Below are some examples of words that also take the preposition ‘on' : on the premises, on the team, on the panel, on the committee, on a whim, etc. 
Read more

'Charge for' or 'Charge with'?

 • The old man was charged for stealing a phone.  When the verb charge is used to mean ‘to accuse somebody formally of a crime…’’, then it takes the preposition with. Meanwhile, when charge means ‘to ask an amount of money for goods or a service’’, then the preposition to use is for.  E.g. The grocer charged five hundred naira for a bag of beans.  To say it right, the above sentence will be:  The old man was charged with stealing a phone. 
Read more

BILLIARDS ARE or BIILIARDS IS?

 • I enjoy playing billiards, especially because they are played between two players.  The noun ‘billiards' is a singular non-count noun. It should be noted that the ‘s' in it is only part of its spelling. Therefore,  it should be treated as a singular noun. The adjective of ‘billiards’ is billiard: a billiard table, a billiard stick, etc. Examples of nouns in this category include checkers, fives, draughts, etc. When corrected, we have:  • I enjoy playing billiards, especially because it is played between two players. 
Read more