Interest in

How to use the expression "interest in" correctly

This is an entry on my list of Common Errors in English Usage. Visit the main page for direct links to additional entries.

The idiomatically correct preposition to use with interest and interested is in:

had an interest for aviation
had an interest in aviation

was interested in aviation

Other words that express a similar meaning may take different prepositions, however:

a passion for aviation
an obsession with aviation

Common Errors in English Usage: Errors in diction and idiom commonly made by native speakers of English

List of Common Errors in English Usage (PDF): Printable version of the complete list

Common Grammar Errors: A list of common errors in grammar (topics like subject-verb agreement and parallelism) as distinct from usage