Language tip of the week: solution

In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are usually based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc.

This week’s language tip helps with the noun solution:

The usual preposition to use with solution is to, not of:
✗ The role of the government is to find the ~~solution of~~ this problem.
✓ The role of the government is to find the solution to this problem.

You can also use for, but this is much less common:
To find the best solutions for managing waste, all these options have to be considered.

The preposition of is used with solution mainly in technical contexts, when it refers to a liquid with another substance dissolved in it:
The containers are cleaned with a weak solution of caustic soda.