practice / IELTS Writing Task 2 / Grammatical Range & Accuracy
#GR9
Preposition error
English pins down place, time, and the relationship between words with a small set of prepositions — in, at, on, to, for, and more — and where each one goes is often fixed rather than logical. Our mainframes flag a missing or wrong preposition as #GR9, and in IELTS Writing Task 2 it counts against Grammatical Range & Accuracy every single time.
Type the missing preposition into each gap — one word only (in, at, on, to, for, by, with...), unless the item itself needs two words.
Exam result
Step 1 Ask what relationship you need: place, time, direction, or a fixed pairing with a verb/adjective/noun.
Step 2 If it's a fixed pairing (afraid of, depend on...), recall the whole pair — don't guess from logic.
Step 3 Say the full phrase in your head before you write it down.
In your next essay, do one dedicated pass that checks only prepositions — especially the ones after verbs and adjectives — and watch this error's count drop in your writing passport.