dragn
Joined: 17 Feb 2009
Posts: 450
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 Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:06 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
He is an expert with the computer.
The sentence above is quoted from a newspaper.
But as far as I know, expert is collocated with "in", "at" or "on". Could it be followed by with? |
Yes, you can be an expert with something, especially some type of instrument or device. The different prepositions are often used with various classes of things. Collocations involving the word expert tend to run something like this:
Someone is an expert in a fairly broad subject or field of study:
Professor Bishop is an expert in applied mathematics.
Someone is an expert on a subject, but often a somewhat more specific subject or topic:
My brother is an expert on the Second World War.
Someone is an expert at doing something, an activity:
Sue is an expert at making balloon animals.
Someone is an expert with some type of device, tool, instrument, machine, and so on:
Dan is an expert with a bullwhip.
This is not definitive; often more than one preposition could be used with no difference in meaning. These are just tendencies. However, in many cases as you change the preposition, you may convey subtle shifts in emphasis. For example:
John is an expert on/in computers.
(Maybe he has a college degree in Computer Science.)
John is an expert at/with computers (or with a computer).
(He is highly skilled at using or possibly repairing computers.)
Hope this is helpful.
Greg |
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