fail

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As far as I know, we don't use any prepositions for "fail", for example: He failed his final exam. But I saw some sentences with "in", for example: But his brother failed in mathematics.
I want to know "fail" and "fail in" are completely the same and always interchangeable?
 

bhaisahab

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As far as I know, we don't use any prepositions for "fail", for example: He failed his final exam. But I saw some sentences with "in", for example: But his brother failed in mathematics.
I want to know "fail" and "fail in" are completely the same and always interchangeable?

No, they are not always interchangeable.
 

emsr2d2

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We wouldn't use "He failed in mathematics". We might use:

He failed maths.
He failed his maths exam.

At a push, you might hear "He failed at maths".
 
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So you mean "fail" is never used with "in"? If there are any examples, could you give me?
Or maybe it's another difference between British and American English.
 

emsr2d2

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So you mean "fail" is never used with "in"? If there are any examples, could you give me?
Or maybe it's another difference between British and American English.

I didn't say it's never used with "in". I simply gave you the natural BrE version of your specific sentence. "Fail" can certainly be used with "in":

He failed in his attempt to swim across the English Channel.
They failed in their attempts to drive me out of the company.
 

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