[Grammar] ‘by’ VS ‘with’ VS ‘to’

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northpath

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Are both prepositions OK in the sentences:
1. The boss was impressed by/with your presentation, Joyce.
2. I was disgusted by/with the way he treated his workers.
3. I was bored by/with the movie and went to bed.
4. John was irritated by/with their stupid questions.
5. Their recommendations do not correspond with/to ours.
 

emsr2d2

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Are both prepositions OK in the following sentences?

1. The boss was impressed by/with your presentation, Joyce. Yes.
2. I was disgusted by/with the way he treated his workers. Yes.
3. I was bored by/with the movie and went to bed. At a push, yes, but "with" is more natural in my opinion.
4. John was irritated by/with their stupid questions. No. Only "by" works here.
5. Their recommendations do not correspond with/to ours. I find it hard to choose between these although the information in the second response HERE mighthelp.

See above.
 

probus

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Disagree with the reply to 3. To me, "by" seems more natural. May be a transatlantic issue.
 

emsr2d2

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Having had another look at #3, I would say that both are possible but with slightly different meanings. The reason I chose "with" was because of "so I went to bed" at the end. In BrE, we would say something like "Right. I've had enough. I'm bored with this. I'm off!" when realising that it really isn't worth wasting any more of our precious time on something, whether it's a film, a party or a relationship. We wouldn't use "I'm bored by this!" in that context.

I might use "by" if there wasn't such a drastic result of my boredom. "I'm a bit bored by this book but I'm going to plough on and finish it anyway".
 

northpath

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Okay, thanks. Please look through the similar sentences, too.
1. I was disgusted at/by/with the sight of the refuse dump.
2. Your mother is upset about/by your misbehavior, Austin.
3. Liz is very upset about/by her uncle's death.
4. You'll gain useful experience in/by working with computers.
5. Mary is careful about/with what she eats.
6. I was very disappointed about/with the results of my test.
7. Lisa was really upset about/at the way her father treated her.
8. Henry was very upset about/over losing the case.
9. My folks are angry about/over my latest grades.
 

Rover_KE

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northpath, most of your 126 (!) posts have been about the use of prepositions.

Where are you getting all the questions from?

Are you not yet able to make your own attempt at answering the above based on what you have learnt so far?

Is there any end in sight to this apparent obsession?
 

northpath

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Distinguished members of the UsingEnglish forum, it looks like an obsession but in fact I’ve been in the process of developing a free educational program called “English Prepositions”. Its first part is already published on Google Store and now its second part is almost finished. These are the last questions I wanted to check up ones more. Please correct them and I humbly promise not to raise this topic for the whole of 2016!
It would be a great honor if some of you could download its first part and subject it to criticism but unfortunately its interface made in my native language.
 
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