Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
I was _____ a party last night.
A) At
B) In
C) On
D) For

Answer 1

Hint: The words given in the options are prepositions. These words tell us the position or relation of subjects and objects with respect to the context of the sentence. For e.g. It is on your left. (direction). He has been gone since yesterday (time). The box is under the bed (position). I am at home (location).

Complete answer:
In the given sentence, we have a subject i.e. “I”. We have a verb i.e. “was” and we have an object i.e. “party”. Therefore, the blank can be filled with a preposition, adjective or adverb. But the given options are all prepositions. Therefore, to fill the blank we need to use a preposition that indicates that we are part of an activity (since ‘party’ is an activity).

Now let us look into the given options:
Option A) At – ‘At’ is a preposition that is used to indicate the ‘time’, ‘place’ and even ‘activities’. For e.g. “He left for school at six in the morning” (time). “She was at her grandparents’ house during the holidays” (place). “We were at the science convention” (activity). The statement given in the question is an example of an activity. I was at a party last night. Hence, it is the correct option.
Option B) In – This preposition is used when we want to indicate the position of something that is located within a confined larger area. For e.g. The poor birds were locked in a cage. The keys are in that drawer. This preposition is not suitable for filling the blank given in the question. “I was at a party last night” is wrong. This option is wrong.
Option C) On – It is a preposition that is used when we refer to something that is placed above something, or when we refer to a subject or topic. For e.g. The cat is sitting on the table. He gave a presentation on energy conservation methods. This option is not appropriate for filling the blank. “I was at a party last night” is incorrect. Thus, the option is incorrect.
Option D) For – This preposition is used to indicate the purpose of performing a certain action. For e.g. I am cooking stew for supper. It is also used for indicating the duration of something. For e.g. He is on leave for two weeks. Therefore, “I was for a party last night” is an incorrect sentence and so is this option.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (A) i.e, I was at a party last night.

Note: Some other very common prepositions are; among, before, from, between, up, down, etc. For e.g. The ball rolled down the stairs. Humans are the most intelligent among all other species. Prepositions are combined with nouns or noun phrases and these nouns or noun phrases are called complements or objects. When the preposition is placed before its complement, it is called ‘preposition’ but when it is placed after its complement, it is called ‘postposition’. In the given question “last night” is an example of a postposition.