Language tip of the week: influence

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

This week some advice about the noun influence:

The usual preposition that follows the noun influence is on. Don’t use the preposition to:
✗ Television brings many benefits, but it can also have a bad ~~influence to~~ people.
✓ Television brings many benefits, but it can also have a bad influence on people.
✗ Cyber cafés have a positive ~~influence to~~ the economy.
✓ Cyber cafés have a positive influence on the economy.
The preposition over can also be used with influence, but it is much less frequent than on:
In reality, the government has limited influence over what happens.