Vaste voorzetsels
Some verbs come welded to one preposition, and no rule predicts which.
Wachten op, denken aan, tevreden zijn met, zich ergeren aan: the verb and the preposition are one item, learned together or not at all. There is no logic to transfer from another language, and the preposition a learner picks by feel is almost always the one their first language would use. It is the error that survives longest, because it never blocks understanding — it just marks the writing as non-native on every line it appears.
How the exam tests this
Schrijven, in every one of the twelve tasks, because these pairs are unavoidable in any sentence that expresses waiting, asking, complaining or being satisfied — which is most of what a B1 writing task is about. Two assessors read the whole answer, and a wrong preposition does not confuse them, it simply sits there. In Lezen the pairs matter in a smaller way: an official text that says u komt in aanmerking voor means something different from anything you can assemble word by word.
What is wrong with this sentence?
Ik wacht al drie weken voor een reactie van uw afdeling.
Most candidates write it exactly like this and lose the mark without knowing why.
The rest of this lesson
The rule, the worked examples, the exceptions and what to do in the exam room open with Mastery, together with every other lesson for this exam.
See plans