Question

Will Mr. Black be at home _____ Saturday evening?
Yes, he’ll be at home ______ four.
Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
A. in/after
B. at/before
C. -/after
D. on/after
E. on/under

Answer 1

Hint: A preposition is a word or set of words used before a verb, pronoun or phrase to indicate a direction, time, place, space or object. Any pre-positions include terms such as "in," "at," "on," "of" and "to." For example: Meet me at the church. The book was on the table.

Complete answer:
Let us analyze the given options:
Option (A) In/after: Preposition “in” is used for unspecified days/dates and “after” means later than. For example - There is a mango tree in my garden. But we can’t use “in” before Saturday but a second blank ‘after’ can be used. However, to make the sentences grammatically correct both the blanks should be filled with the correct words. Therefore, we will not take this option in the blanks and thus, this is an incorrect answer.

Option (B) At/before: Preposition “at” is used to point out the specific time period; used to indicate place and also used to indicate an activity and “before” means earlier than. For example: Meet me at 4 pm near the book store. However, using this option in the blanks will make the sentence incorrect. However, ‘at Saturday evening’ does not make any meaningful sense and ‘before four’ in the second blank does not give the exact sense in the sentence. Therefore, this is an incorrect answer.

Option (C) -/after: First blank has to be filled with the preposition; it cannot be blank and preposition ‘after’ can be used as a preposition, an adverb and as a conjunction. If we use after as a preposition then it should be followed by a noun. For example: I went for a drive after dinner. However, the second blank will take the preposition ‘after’ but the first blank cannot be empty. Thus, this is an incorrect answer as we need to fill both the blanks with correct prepositions.

Option (D) On/after: Preposition “on” is used for specified days/dates and ‘on’ is used to indicate the state of something and “after” can be used as a preposition, an adverb and as a conjunction. If we use after as a preposition then it should be followed by a noun that is in the second sentence home is a noun and followed by a preposition that is after. However, this option can be appropriately fit in the blanks as it makes the sentence grammatically correct. Therefore, this is the correct answer.

Option (E) On/under: Preposition “on” is used for specified days/dates and is used for specified days/dates and ‘on’ is used to indicate the state of something and when we use preposition “under” it works as the word ‘below’ and we use ‘under’ when we talk about something that is lower or below than something else. However, the use of these two words in the blanks will make the sentence incorrect. Therefore, this is an incorrect answer.

The correct option is option (D) i.e, on/after.
“Will Mr. Black be at home on Saturday evening?
Yes, he’ll be at home after four.”

Note:
- Use to, in, into, on and into prepositions to indicate a direction.
- Using the prepositions in, at, and on to refer to one moment in time.
- Using the prepositions since, with, by, after, from, to, and inward.
- Using the prepositions to refer to a spot/place “in” (a point itself), "at" (neighbourhood), "on" (surface), and "inside" (within).
- Use "in" (surface or volume), "at" (point) and "on" (a surface) in a preposition for a position/location.
- Use "over," "across," "against," "forward," "along," "among," "round," "backside" or "under," to refer to a spatial connection.