Learn English – Prepositions used with “impact”

prepositions

When A impacts B, do we always say "A has an impact on B"? Or does it depend on what A and B are? For example, is it right to say, "the recession had a great impact in Dubai?"

I have also seen the proposition "to" being used with the word impact.

Which is the correct form?

Best Answer

I don't do "correct", but I would normally use "impact on".

Any other preposition I would interpret as an adjunct, not a complement (i.e. not part of the meaning of "impact", but saying something about the where, the when or the how).

So I would interpret "a great impact in Dubai" as "a great impact on something obvious from context, in Dubai".

The only like case I can think of for "impact to" would be something like "have a great impact to new arrivals", meaning "have a great impact on something unspecified, as perceived by new arrivals".

Edit: it occurs to me that "impact" now has a separate meaning that doesn't require a complement at all. So "make a great impact in Dubai" is perhaps an example of this: the "in Dubai" is still an adjunct. "Make a great impact on Dubai" would says that it is somehow changing Dubai or its people.

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Learn English – Should we worry about what precedes a preposition

You have understood one thing correctly: a preposition is combined with what follows it to form a prepositional phrase, and they form a single constituent in the sentence. Generally speaking, words in English govern (ie. control or specify) the words that come after them. In linguistics, we say that English is right-branching, meaning that new syntactic elements come after (to the right of, in writing) the elements that govern them.

Note that there are exceptions, such as adjectives, which precede the nouns that govern them. English is not exclusively right-branching, but it is predominantly right-branching.

But what does this have to do with prepositions? Well, just as a preposition governs the noun phrase that comes to its right, the preposition itself is governed by something to its left. And in many cases, that thing is a verb. English is full of idiomatic combinations of verb + preposition, where the verb requires a specific preposition to follow it, and anything else is an error. To take some obvious examples cribbed from other answers:

I converse with you. [Not to/at/of you]

They rely on the bus. [Not with/to/at the bus]

These combinations are highly idiomatic, meaning that the correct choice of preposition cannot be predicted simply by knowing the general meaning of the words involved. So the people who ask about what preposition follows a certain word are asking a reasonable and intelligent question. The choice of preposition very, very often depends on what came before it.

Learn English – Meaning of “exported from somewhere”

Many verbs have complements that express a two-way flow, such as import and export, give and receive, or send and receive.

Ron gave Paul a new television.
Paul received a new television from Ron.
The new television was given by Ron.
The new television was a gift from Ron.


The ship sent a distress signal to shore.
The Coast Guard station received a distress signal from the ship.
The distress signal was sent by the ship.

These seem analogous to the three examples you wrote. I agree that

The UK exports wheat.

is superior to

Wheat is exported from the UK.

but I still believe the latter is acceptable.

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Learn English – Should we worry about what precedes a preposition

Learn English – Meaning of “exported from somewhere”

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