Preposition?

Question

Preposition
people of different countries may have different attitudes or customs ______ dates.

Answer 1

Idiomatic expressions involve phrasing that is peculiar to a given language. Idiomatic expressions cannot be explained or justified by grammatical or lexical rules. They simply have developed that way as the language developed.

In the English language this is particularly confusing with regard to prepositions used with certain nouns, verbs, or adjectives. For example, we may agree about something, we may decide about something, and we may argue about something. But, though we may agree on something and decide on something, we would NOT argue on something. That would not be conisdered idiomatically correct. Someone who used that expression would sound like a foreigner just learning English or an uneducated person who uses the language awkwardly.

Your question presents just such a problem with idiomatic correctness. People may have different attitudes about dates. But they would not have different customs about dates. I do not think there is a single prepostion that works equally well with attitudes and customs. We might say, "People may have different attitudes and customs with regard to dates." But I suspect most native speakers would opt to say, "People of different countries may have different attitudes about dates, and their customs with regard to dates may differ, too." Or something like that.

By the way, you might also want to be aware that either way the sentence is still ambiguous. Do you mean that people have different attitudes about calendar dates or about social engagements? If the latter is what you mean, the sentence might read, "People have different attitudes about dates, and their dating customs may different too."

I hope this is helpful. I know it may sound confusing, but then we have to admit: idiomatic language is confusing. English is confusing. What we hear and learn to say from childhood on without thinking about it is not always that easy to hear and learn to say if you are a thinking adult learning English as a second language.

Good luck. And thank you for learning our language!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

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