Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word:
A football match lasts ___ ninety minutes.
A) while
B) during
C) for
D) in

Answer 1

Hint: A preposition is a word or phrase used before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to indicate direction, time, place, location, spatial relationships, or to introduce an item. Words like "in," "at," "on," "of," and "to" are all instances of prepositions. In English, prepositions have a lot of idioms.

Complete answer:
Prepositions show how other words in a sentence are related. Many prepositions indicate the location of something or the time it occurred. In the above sentence, we have to use a preposition that will indicate the duration of match.

Let us look at the given options:
A) while: This option is incorrect because while is used to indicate ‘as opposed to something else' whereas in the above sentence the preposition should indicate a certain period of time.
B) during: This option is incorrect because during refers to a specific point in time when something occurred but in the above sentence entire duration of the match has to be specified.
C) for: This is the correct option. In the above sentence, the preposition should indicate the duration of the football match. for is valid because it denotes a certain time period.
D) in: This option is incorrect because the preposition ‘in’ means inside something. This is not appropriate for the above sentence as it requires the entire duration of the football match.

Thus, the correct answer is option (C) i.e, for.

Note: Some rules of prepositions are:
- An object is required for a preposition.
- The term "pre-position" refers to a position that occurs before another.
- When a preposition is followed by a pronoun, it should be in object form.
- The terms to preposition and to infinitive are not interchangeable.
- A "noun" comes after a preposition. A verb is never used after it.