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Anon f8r Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Have trouble (in) doing something.

Is the preposition 'in' in the following sentences optional?

He has trouble in finding his way there.
He has trouble in preparing for the exam.
He has trouble in swimming in the sea.
He has trouble in spending time with his brother alone.
He has trouble in understanding the way it works.

Thank you.
  

Top answer

Yes, "in" is optional. I wouldn't use it myself in your sentences but they are not incorrect.

— MrBen

  • Yes, "in" is optional.
  • I wouldn't use it myself in your sentences but they are not incorrect.
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4 Answers
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Yes, "in" is optional. I wouldn't use it myself in your sentences but they are not incorrect.
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None of them is natural with in, and I’m tempted to go so far as to say it’s wrong because finding his way there, for example, is complement to the catenative verb has, not the preposition in, which shouldn’t be there in the first place.
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It's not an uncommon usage in BrE, I found a few examples in a very quick search here: http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
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My BNC search came up with just five citations, none of which sounded to me any more natural than the OP’s sentences. I can’t speak for other varieties of English, but I can say that it is very uncommon in AmE. Not surprisingly, the COCA has only nine citations for has/had/have trouble in [vvg] and 2467 for no preposition.

I guess my point is that I don’t recommend using in.
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