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How to combine in a sentence two verb + preposition pairs that have the same object?

Which of the following sentences is correct?

  • I listen, go, read and learn from experts.
  • I listen to, go with, read and learn from experts

I talk here about prepositions (to, with, from) related to the word experts. What is the best use?

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marked as duplicate by Jasper Loy, RegDwigнt Jul 2 '12 at 9:34


The second construct is correct. You don't "go from" experts, so you need to use the correct preposition (in this case, "with") – as you did in your second sentence. – J.R. Jul 2 '12 at 8:39

1 Answer 1

up vote 4 down vote accepted

The correct sentence would actually be "I listen to, go with, read the works of, and learn from experts." Or if you actually mean to say "I read experts," where "experts" implicitly represents the works of experts, then your second sentence is correct.

In a situation like this, each item in your list should make sense with the common elements of the sentence. For instance, in your first sentence, you are essentially saying "I listen from experts, I go from experts, I read from experts, and I learn from experts." The first three obviously don't make sense, so this sentence doesn't work. In your second sentence, you're saying "I listen to experts, I go with experts, I read experts, and I learn from experts."

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+1 for nice and short explanation. Do you think there is a difference between "read" and "read from"? – Fr0zenFyr Jul 2 '12 at 9:18
