Learn English – the difference between “out of” and “of”

differenceprepositions

I saw this sentence in a grammar book.

  • Who is the youngest girl of the three.

But I think that I can change of to out of without changing the meaning. Is it true? Please tell me.

Best Answer

All of these are quite commonly heard in AmE:

She is the youngest of the three.

She is the youngest girl of the three.

She is the youngest out of the three.

She is the youngest girl out of the three.

In this particular usage, out of is the more colloquial/informal, so while it is heard fairly often it would be far less likely to appear in expository writing.

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