Deter is normally followed by from when talking about stopping someone from an action. By is common in passive patterns such as be deterred by a threat or obstacle.
Use deter from to mean prevent or discourage someone from doing something: deter someone from leaving. The combination deter by is not standard as a direct verb pattern. However, by is natural after the passive form deterred when it introduces the cause: be deterred by high costs.
These forms are not interchangeable. Choose the construction by meaning, not by which preposition appears most often.
Use from before a noun or -ing form to show the action that someone avoids.
From can also be followed by a noun phrase.
In passive structures, by introduces the thing that causes discouragement.
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.
After active deter, use from before the action or thing avoided.
✕ The rules deter students by cheating. ✓ The rules deter students from cheating.Deter usually needs a person, group, or thing being discouraged.
✕ The warning deterred from entering. ✓ The warning deterred visitors from entering.Use from plus an -ing form, not to plus infinitive.
✕ High prices deterred us to travel. ✓ High prices deterred us from travelling.Choose the expression that matches the intended meaning.
Paste the complete sentence below. Linguix checks the preposition together with grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style.
Not usually after the active verb deter. Use deter someone from something. By is common in passive forms such as be deterred by high costs.
You can use a noun phrase or an -ing form: deter someone from crime, deter someone from smoking.
They are similar, but deter often means discourage, while prevent can mean completely stop.
Create a free account to check complete texts, apply suggestions, and save your documents.
