Question

I must apologize _____ you ______ not answering your letters at once.
(Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words)
a. from/of
b. at/for
c. from/in
d. to/for

Answer 1

Hint: We have to choose the correct preposition to show the relation between me and you as here the sentence wants to convey that ‘someone is apologizing as they did not answer the letters received by the other person at once. Go through the options and select the one which best expresses the meaning of the given sentence.

Complete answer: Words which are placed before nouns or pronouns to show the relation between the particular word and the remaining part of the sentence are prepositions.
(a) from/of- The preposition “from” is used either to show that something was prevented from happening (eg: The child was saved by her mother from falling off the bed), to be a reason for something (eg: She is suffering from anxiety) or to be a starting point of something (eg: He shifted from Bangalore to Delhi for work). “Of” is used to show the content of something (eg: The sky is full of stars tonight). Neither can be applied to the given sentence.
(b) at/for- I must apologize at you for not answering your letters at once. We cannot apologize ‘at’ someone since “at” is used when we are talking about a target, eg: I shot the ball at the basket. The second proposition “for” is correct since “for” shows doing something for a purpose.
(c) from/in- I must apologize from you in not answering your letters at once. “From” shows that you were supposed to apologize to me, for example, I need an apology from you. That is not the idea of the given sentence. So it is wrong. “In” is used to signify that something is within a closed space, eg: I kept the marbles in the box. Hence, this option is incorrect.
(d) to/for- I must apologize to you for not answering your letters at once. “To” is used as a preposition when there is a receiver of an action. In the given sentence, “you” is the receiver of the action (the apology). “For” is used as the purpose (not answering letters) of the action. Thus, this is the right answer.
The correct option is option (d).

Note: Prepositions are of different types, namely, (i) Simple Prepositions, (ii) Double Prepositions, (iii) Compound Prepositions, (iv) Participle Prepositions and (v)Phrase Prepositions.