A fight against the word AGAINST

It's probably not said because the meaning of the verb 'fight', in this case, already contains the notion of 'against'--i.e., to contend against.

AnonymousI see a lot of the following use of fight and against:

a fight (noun) against cancer

fight (verb) cancer

But not the following:

fight (verb) against cancer

Is this wrong?

Try to google 'fighting against cancer" and you will find about 8000 examples.

Yes, I've googled the phrase and found some (many?) pages. But I want to know if the phrase is grammatically correct.

The beginning was one of the excises in my English text book. Here it goes:

Correct the following sentence:
My mother, who lives in the country, have been fighting against cancer for a long time.

The answer in the text book:
My mother, who lives

I think it's OK:

---------
fight, v.

1 a : to contend physically for victory with vigor, fierceness, and
determination <fought on the ridge until nightfall> : strive to
overcome or destroy a person, animal, or thing especially by blows or
weapons -- often used with against or with <brother f

The question was about the phrase 'fight (verb) against cancer', not 'fighting against cancer'. I don't believe Google will show common use of the phrase in question here. I do see 13,000 hits on 'to fight against cancer' as opposed to 644,000 on 'to fight cancer'. And over two million on 'fight cancer'.

DavkettThe question was about the phrase 'fight (verb) against cancer', not 'fighting against cancer'. I don't believe Google will show common use of the phrase in question here.

The reason I used 'fighting' is to differntiate the verb form, fight, from the noun, 'fight'. I thought that was a fast way of finding examples of 'fight agaist' as a verb

PinenutThe reason I used 'fighting' is to differntiate the verb form, fight, from the noun, 'fight'. I thought that was a fast way of finding examples of 'fight agaist' as a verb instead of 'fight against' as a noun.

I'm a little out of my turf, not being a grammarian, Pinenut. But fighting could be a gerund and acting like a noun in many of the Google c

Davkett

PinenutThe reason I used 'fighting' is to differntiate the verb form, fight, from the noun, 'fight'. I thought that was a fast way of finding examples of 'fight agaist' as a verb instead of 'fight against' as a noun.

I'm a little out of my turf, not being a grammarian, Pinenut. But fighting could be a gerund and acting lik

I don' believe there are any inherent reasons why you cannot use any of these. The word fight is, as folks have pointed out, both a noun and a verb, and provided you are using it correctly as such, you're OK.

You could hear an onchologist say "We fight against cancer every day in our hospital," or an individual could offer "It's important that I fight against cancer

I should qualify that 'fight against' simply isn't as common in this context.

In addition, for me, adding 'against' suggests that the opponent is fighting back, which I tend to think is not the real case in cancer, however subjective or presumptious a thought that may be. Cancer is simply doing what it does naturally. I don't see it as engaged in a struggle. Humans