Learn English – It is difficult for me to understand ‘of’

possessivesprepositions

I'm not a native English speaker. In our nation it is very difficult to understand meaning of 'of'.

It's easy to understand : noun of noun ex) a friend of mine, a tire of the car

but this is very difficult : adjective of noun, verb A of noun

1 He is proud of his son.
why does this sentence has 'of' instead of 'from'? for me 'He is proud from his son' is more natural.

2 She should convince him of his mistake. why does this sentence has 'of' instead of 'about'? 'She should convince him about his mistake' is more natural to me.

Could you please teach me about nuance of 'of'?

Best Answer

Prepositions are very difficult in every language that I know. Each construction with a preposition conveys a different nuance; but what nuance a particular preposition conveys is wholly unpredictable. It varies with every word.

For instance, we say

I am proud of my son.
I am ashamed of my son.
I feel pride in my son.
I feel shame for my son.
I am disappointed in my son.
I am fond of my son.
I am indifferent toward my son.
I am amused at my son.

Sometimes there are historical reasons for a particular usage, but only a tiny number of professional scholars know those reasons. People use a particular pronoun only because that is the pronoun which they hear and read and not for any logical reason.

So there is no way to teach the "nuance of of". A collocation, X of, expresses a particular nuance, but it has nothing to do with the nuance expressed by Y of. There is no shortcut: you just have to learn each individual expression.

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