Kill commonly combines with different prepositions depending on whether you mention a situation, method, or cause.
Use kill in to refer to a situation or event where someone dies, such as an accident or war. Use kill by to describe the method or agent, often in passive structures.
These forms are not interchangeable. Choose the construction by meaning, not by which preposition appears most often.
Use kill in for accidents, disasters, wars, and similar events.
Use kill by mainly in passive sentences to identify the cause or agent.
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.
Use in for wars, accidents, and disasters.
✕ They were killed by the earthquake. ✓ They were killed in the earthquake.Use by when naming the cause or agent.
✕ The plants were killed in frost. ✓ The plants were killed by frost.Choose the expression that matches the intended meaning.
Paste the complete sentence below. Linguix checks the preposition together with grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style.
Yes. In passive sentences, by can introduce the agent: He was killed by a robber.
Yes. It can refer to a place or event: killed in prison, killed in the crash.
Yes. Kill with usually introduces the instrument used to cause death.
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