Live now: Watch President Obama's address on the oil spill and ask your questions of the White House.

"of" indicates the object of "ask".

"ask of someone" is a formal or literary form of words.

Jackson6612ask your questions of the White House

This is an unusual alternation used (only, I think) with the verb ask. of, oddly, substitutes for the usual to.

With most verbs it's

He showed me his watch > He showed his watch to me.

But with ask, it's

He asked me his questio

9 a —used as a function word to indicate the object of an action denoted or implied by the preceding noun b —used as a function word to indicate the application of a verb or of an adjective
[M-W Col. Dic.]

Link:

Hi Mr Wordy

Thank you for the help. What you said is along the same lines as what the definition says. Right?

Jackson6612What you said is along the same lines as what the definition says. Right?

I don't think so. The examples they give for #9 -- "love of nature", "cheats him of a dollar" and "fond of candy" -- are not analogous.



"ask of" might be a special form that you need to learn individually. I'm not sure this use of "of" is generalisable or t

Thank you very much, Mr W, CJ.

"ask of" might be a special form that you need to learn individually.

Perhaps, it could be found in an unabridged dictionary. If it's a set phrase evolved over a period of time then what...?

Jackson6612Perhaps, it could be found in an unabridged dictionary. If it's a set phrase evolved over a period of time then what...? Doesn't an unabridged contain all phrases, including set expressions?

I'm not sure if you'll easily find it in dictionaries. It's not a set expression in quite the same way as others that you may have in mind. In terms of function

Mr Wordyit's more like, for example, "look at" or "speak to", which you wouldn't necessarily expect to find listed separately in a dictionary.

But one can infer the overall meaning by looking at the separate entries of the constituent words.

My keyboard is not functioning normally - no apostrophe, slashes, etc. I have just checked it now. It is a phr

Hi

Jackson6612It is a phrasal verb

Is it? I thought it was a fixed phrase.
Anyway, dictionaries for learners usually list that expression among their examples:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/ask_1 Can I ask you a favour?/