Question

Fill up with the right preposition;
Her face was bright ___________ happiness.
A) To
B) About
C) For
D) With

Answer 1

Hint: It is mentioned in the question that we have to fill in with a preposition. So the preposition here would be associated with the word ‘happiness’, here happiness is treated as a noun. ‘Happiness’ is an emotion, so it is something worn on oneself. Try converting the declaration to an interrogative sentence to clarify which preposition will suit the given blank, positioned before ‘happiness’.

Complete answer:
This is the place where we use a special category of prepositions called as preposition of manner. When we read the question, we can understand clearly that the preposition to be filled in is directly associated with ‘happiness’. Find out from the options, which word is correctly able to give a meaning where ‘bright’ and ‘happiness’ are accompanied with each other.
The interrogative statement which would give ‘happiness’ as the answer is;
With what was her face bright?

Now look at each possible option in detail;
For option (A) to; this is incorrect because, ‘to’ implies a reference towards something and here it would not make any sense.
For option (B) about; this is again incorrect since ‘about’ signifies concern and not accompaniment.
For option (C) for; this is incorrect as ‘for’ expresses reasoning and it is not appropriate here. Because ‘for’ cannot be used when we want to say that the person’s face is ‘bright’ because of ‘happiness’.
For option (D) with; this is correct. Here ‘with’ fits perfectly into the sentence because we are saying that the person’s face is bright because she is filled with happiness.
The complete sentence with the right answer in the blank will be; Her face was bright with happiness.

Thus the correct answer is option ‘D’.

Note: Let us discuss the different types of prepositions that are available in English language.
The types of preposition and its examples look like these:
- Simple: She placed her hat on the table (here ‘on’ is the simple preposition).
- Double: The teacher put us out of the class (here ‘out’ is a double preposition).
- Compound: My daughter likes to stand in front of the toy shop (here ‘in front of’ is compound)
- Participle: She was staring at the wall during the class (here ‘during’ is participle preposition)
- Phrase: He can pass this exam with a little help from his friends (here ‘a little help’ is a phrase preposition).