Another pet peeve of mine is popping up everywhere, so I thought I would share with our readers what it is and why it sounds so incorrect to me.
This pet peeve is people using the preposition with as an adverb (or, in the case of my daughter–with an understood object of the preposition–her way of using grammar terms to justify its use!).
Here is the run down on what I see as this pet peeve’s problem:
1. First of all, yes, words have multiple uses and parts of speech everywhere all the time. This is one reason why we advocate only using grammar programs for children that have the words used–not lists of words in which the student is to identify what part of speech it is. A part of speech is determined by the word’s use, not the word itself:
a. jump–a student might determine that jump is a verb…which it can be. But it can also be a noun (she made a huge jump) and an adjective (it was a jump start program).
b. to–a student might determine that to is a preposition…which it can be. But it can also be part of a verbal phrase known as an infinitive (to run).
2. With is not one of those “multiple use” kinds of words. With is almost always (and probably always) a preposition.
a. With is a preposition because a preposition is a word that shows possession, has an object with it (the object of the preposition), and is the beginning of a prepositional phrase: with her, with the show, with the leader.
b. With is seldom, if ever, used alone as an adverb (like many other prepositions can be):
i. She is going along. (Along is an adverb here.)
ii. She ran along the trail. (Along is a preposition here.)
iii. I told him to jump down. (Down is an adverb here.)
iv. He ran down the street. (Down is a preposition here.)
3. With is not an adverb by itself. It is not the kind of word that can stand alone as another part of speech. It is a preposition that needs an object to show a relationship (with whom? with what?).
So…tell who you are going with–and use with as a preposition, the way it was intended to be used! Smile…
