Using English Prepositions - Lesson 2: About and Of - Improve Your Grammar!

This is a picture of my son and me.

What do you think we're talking about?

What's the topic of our conversation?

These two prepositions can easily be confused.

In general, ABOUT means "concerning."

What does our conversation concern?

In general, OF expresses belonging.

There are parts,

and the parts belong to something bigger.

Our conversation has a topic.

What is the topic of our conversation?

If you remember ABOUT means "concerning,"

you'll understand why that preposition needs to be used in these examples.

And if you remember OF expresses belonging,

then you'll understand these examples.

But is the choice to use ABOUT or OF always clear?

No.

Here's another photo.

Could we switch the two prepositions in these sentences?

Yes, we could.

And the meaning really wouldn't change at all.

So with the verb THINK - think of/ think about...

we can often use either preposition.

However, look at this example.

Here we must use ABOUT.

ABOUT means "concerning details."

He's giving consideration to this question.

Now would you like to hear the question I asked him?

Then listen

and you'll find out one thing he's scared of.

These are your toys, not mine, right?

Yes.

What do we have?

A spider and an insect...or a cockroach.

You think it's a cockroach? It's a big one. Okay.

Are you afraid of spiders?

A little bit.

If it was this big?

Yes, I'd be afraid.

I'd be afraid of it, too.

What about cockroaches? Are you afraid of cockroaches?

If it landed on me, I'd be scared.

I would be scared, too.

The adjectives AFRAID and SCARED

can be followed by prepositional phrases with OF.

Why not ABOUT?

Could we use the preposition ABOUT

to name the cause of some emotion, the source of a feeling?

Confusion with the prepositions OF and ABOUT

can increase when we talk about our feelings.

Both prepositions can help us express

the cause or the source of what we feel.

For example...

I'm proud of them.

My children are the source of my pride.

But these very same children

can also cause me worry.

I worry about them.

So in this case I'm using the preposition ABOUT

to talk about what causes me worry.

What is the cause?

So both prepositions can be used to talk about feelings.

There are different combinations that you can learn.

Verb + preposition...adjective + preposition...

Don't try to memorize long lists of combinations.

Just become familiar with a small set at a time.

And become familiar with these combinations

in a meaningful context.

Let's do just that.

Sometimes either preposition will be possible.

Read the text to yourself, and then I'll tell you the answer.

If I want to know if you are aware of a film,

I can ask if you've heard of it or even heard about it.

Although "heard about" might imply knowledge of more details.

"A film about something" is like "a story about something"...

"a book about something."

What does it concern?

Often we complain about situations,

but we complain of pain, physical pain.

When you have someone in your thoughts,

you can say you're thinking about them or thinking of them.

With "dream" we could use either preposition.

Often we dream OF doing something,

but when we sleep, we dream of or dream about something.

We can think about something or think of something,

but when we give something consideration,

a lot of thought,

we think about it.

"Think about" implies concentration.

We think about problems.

We think about difficult choices.

"A portion of" is like "a part of."

And here with "the biggest adventure"

we have a superlative adjective.

We often then name the group.

The biggest of what?

The longest of what?

The best of what?

"The biggest adventure of their lives."

"Of one's own" is a phrase we use

to emphasize belonging.

And then we have adjectives:

Tired of, fond of, proud of.

I hope you enjoyed reading about Up.

If you haven't seen the film yet,

maybe you'll think about seeing it.

In that text, we saw a number of combinations.

Let's review those combinations now.

Here are some verb + preposition combinations.

These are noun + preposition combinations.

And finally, here are some adjective + preposition combinations you heard.

That's all for now.

Thanks for watching and...

happy studies!