By or with

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ESL forum > Ask for help > By or with

By or with

tommy1996

By or with

Please help me with this sentence The garden is surrounded by/with th flowers Thanks

26 Jul 2017

cunliffe

I would say �The garden is surrounded by flowers �. By the way, I wouldn �t include �the � .

26 Jul 2017

douglas

Surrounded by flowers.

26 Jul 2017

ldthemagicman

I agree!

"The garden is surrounded by flowers."

The Oxford English Dictionary, 2006:

1) After a Passive Verb:

The door was opened by my cousin, Annie.

Damage caused by fire.

WITH

The nearest suitable definition that I can find, is ...

1) Accompanied by (another person or thing):

A nice steak with a bottle of red wine.

My opinion?

"The garden is surrounded by flowers." �

Les Douglas

26 Jul 2017

Matthew@ELSP

Just for context.

If you �d like to see a similar thing using [with]...

The streets are lined with flowers.

This suggests some human activity - some people put the flowers there.

26 Jul 2017

Jayho

Surrounded usually collocates with by, for a reference to location. With is more for possession (with is often used instead of have when indicating possession)

Surrounded by flowers is the correct form but with is perfectly understood in everyday conversation

27 Jul 2017