Prepositions in English – OF

Hi there. My name is Emma, and today we have a special lesson for you. So some of you have

requested lessons before on our comment board at www.engvid.com, and we like to accommodate

you guys. We like to teach you the things you really want to learn. So this lesson is

dedicated to a student named Einarth who asked for this specific lesson. So this lesson is

on the preposition "of". Now, I know a lot of you get confused with when to use "of".

Some sentences seem to have it, some words like "a lot", "a lot of", or is it just "a

lot"? When do we use it? So this video is going to look at three different times we

use "of".

So to begin with, I want to talk a little bit about possession. So we use "of" sometimes

when we're talking about "whose thing is it?" So I'll explain this a little bit more clearly.

So I have two sentences here. "The leg of the chair is broken.", "The dog's leg is broken."

In English, these are the two ways to show possession. By "possession" I mean "whose

leg is it?" It's the chair's leg. "Whose leg is it?" It's the dog's leg. So the first way

is by using "of the". The second way is just using "apostrophe s".

So for a lot of students, this becomes difficult and confusing because they think, "When do

I use 'apostrophe s'?" "When do I use 'of the'?" Well, it's quite simple, actually.

So I have down here, I have "when we use 'of the'", and "when we use 'apostrophe s'".

So we use "of the" when we're talking about things that are not alive, objects. So for

example, a chair. A chair is an object, it's not alive. But if we're talking about a part

of the chair, to show possession, we can use "of the". We wouldn't usually say, "The chair's

leg is broken." You might hear native speakers say that a lot, but oftentimes in writing,

we prefer "of the" when we're talking about objects and things that aren't living.

So that brings me to my next point, "apostrophe s". When do we use "apostrophe s" for possession?

Well, we use it when we're talking about possessions of people, groups of people, organizations,

countries, and animals. So for example, dog, it's an animal, so we would use "apostrophe

s". Whose leg is it? It's the dog's leg. So again, the leg of the chair is broken versus

the dog's leg is broken.

So here's a second example. In this case, I have the word, "My father's house is really

nice." Or, "The house of my father is really nice." Now again, for possession, both of

these are possibilities. You can use either, but in general, we prefer to use "apostrophe

s" with people. So in this case, the sentence, "My father's house is really nice," is the

preferred sentence. We try not to really use this one. Although again, it's not grammatically

incorrect, it's just preference.

Okay, so now we are going to move on to another case when you use "of".

So first of all, I talked about possession. Now I'm going to talk about expressions of

quantity. So this has to do with numbers, when we're talking about the amount of something.

Some expressions of quantity always have "of". So we're going to go through that list first,

the expressions that always have "of". So let's look at some of these.

The first one is "a lot". This is a mistake I always see in students' writing. They write,

"a lot students", "a lot businesses". You need "of". So, "a lot of students watching

this." Period. Okay. "A number", just like "a lot", it's an expression we need "of". "A

number of people study English." "Lots". "Lots" is similar to "a lot", it's just a little

bit more informal. "Lots of animals live in the zoo." "A great deal", another expression,

we need "of". "A great deal of students hate exams."

Now, in terms of the words "majority" or "minority", we also need "of". So we can say, "A majority

of cats eat mice." Or, the opposite of that is "a minority". I don't know if this is true,

but "a minority of cats eat mice." Again, key point, we need "of".

Finally, the word "a couple". "A couple of" -- that's a good way to finish the sentence.

"A couple of superheroes were seen at the mall." So it doesn't matter what your sentence

is, the main thing is that for these expressions, "a lot", "a number", "lots of", "a great deal

of", "a majority", "a minority", "a couple", they all need "of".

So now, we are going to make things a little bit more complicated, because English has

a way of loving to do that for you students. And so, we are going to look at expressions

of quantity, which sometimes have "of" and sometimes they don't.

So here is a list of some expressions that sometimes use "of" and sometimes they don't.

So we have "all", "most", "almost all", "many", "much", "a few", "a little", "one", "two",

"three", etc.; "both", "several", "some", and "any". Now, it would take too long to

cover all of these, so I want you to think about what I'm going to say. It applies to

all of them.

So when do we use "of" and when do we not use "of"? So I'm going to write a sentence.

Now, of course, this isn't true. All students don't hate math. Now, if I don't use "of",

"all students hate math", I'm talking about students in general. I'm not talking about

a specific group of students. I'm not talking about my friends who are students. I'm talking

about students of the world, just a very general statement. Now, if I turn this to "all of

the students", "all of the students hate math", now I'm talking specific, which means maybe

it's a specific group of students I know, maybe it's students in my class. I'm not talking

generally now. I'm talking about a group of students that's specific.

Similarly, with "most", if we say "most restaurants expect a tip", I'm talking again generally.

I'm not talking about restaurants I know. I'm not talking about specific restaurants.

I'm just talking about all restaurants. Not all, but most restaurants within the world.

So "most restaurants expect a tip". Now, if I want to make this specific, maybe I have

a certain group of restaurants in mind. Maybe I'm thinking of restaurants of Toronto. That's

a specific group. In that case, specific, I would add "most of the". "Most of the restaurants

expect a tip." "Most of the restaurants in Toronto expect a tip." "Most of the restaurants

I visit expect a tip." So again, in this case, we've changed it to specific.

I'll do one more example of that. "Almost all friends are kind."

Now, I'm talking about almost all of the friends in the world. I'm not talking about my friends.

I'm not talking about your friends. I'm not talking about a specific group of friends

in general. Again, in order to make this specific, the time we use "of" is to make this specific.

"Almost all of my friends are kind." Now, I'm talking about a specific group of people.

So there you have it, the three different cases of when we use "of". First of all, we

talked about possession, mainly with objects we use "of". Secondly, we talked about expressions

of quantity that always demand "of". And finally, we've looked at some expressions where we

sometimes use "of" depending on what our meaning is.

So to do practice tests on this, I invite you to come visit our site at www.engvid.com.

Thanks. Take care.