Prepositions are the last thing a learner gets right and the first thing that gives them away.
Portuguese depende de, Spanish depende de, French dépend de, Italian dipende da. One preposition, four languages, and of looks like the obvious translation.
In English the preposition belongs to the verb, not to the meaning. Depend takes on, and no amount of reasoning gets you there. That's why prepositions aren't deduced — they're learned welded to the verb.
And every verb has its own
These five fail for the same reason: a preposition translated literally.
The rule that covers all of them
Never store the verb alone. Store verb plus preposition: depend on, listen to, wait for. Learn "depend" by itself and you'll improvise the preposition — and improvising here means getting it wrong.
One honest caveat
A few do line up — think about, talk about. But a coincidence isn't a rule, and trusting it is what produces "depends of".
You don't need one more rule to memorise. You need to speak and be corrected.
The mistake you just read is one of dozens — and almost nobody corrects them, because people understand you anyway.
- Actually speakJohn hears what you say and corrects you on the spot, with the reason why.
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