Rife is normally followed by with to describe something full of a negative quality, problem, or activity. Rife in is uncommon and usually sounds unnatural in modern English.
Use rife with to mean full of something, especially something negative such as corruption, rumours, or mistakes. Rife in is rare and usually avoided in current English.
These forms are not interchangeable. Choose the construction by meaning, not by which preposition appears most often.
Use rife with for situations, places, or documents containing many unwanted things.
Rife with is common for rumours, gossip, and speculation.
Rife in occasionally appears in formal writing to mean widespread in a place or group, but most learners should prefer rife in the noun phrase or widespread in.
The same subject can take different constructions because each sentence answers a different question.
Some combinations appear in real text but do not mean what learners often assume.
Rife usually has a negative or critical tone.
✕ The festival was rife with joy. ✓ The festival was full of joy.When the adjective directly describes what something contains, use with.
✕ The report was rife in errors. ✓ The report was rife with errors.Rife means widespread or abundant, not active or crowded.
✕ The café was rife with customers. ✓ The café was crowded with customers.Choose the expression that matches the intended meaning.
Paste the complete sentence below. Linguix checks the preposition together with grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style.
Usually yes. It commonly describes problems, corruption, errors, or rumours.
Yes, but it is less common and usually refers to something widespread in a place or group.
You can often use full of or filled with, depending on the tone you want.
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