Of happiness

Question

Hello,  Can we say, " He is of happiness" like we say, " He is happy".The usage of of" often confuses me.Any help would be appreciated.Kn

Ivanhr · Accepted Answer

No, you can't say that.

You can say "he's a man of happiness" but I'm not sure how common this usage is.

Anonymous · Answer

Thans, Ivanhr

Ivanhr, let me ask you something related to this question.

We cannot say "He is of happiness", but we can say" He is a man of happiness".

Once a while I come acrosssentences like,

"This problem is of importance", which I see " of " coming right after " be-verb" like "He is of happiness".

Should I understand that usage of "be-verb + of" depends on what??

Ant rules here? Or this goes just the way it goes, all depnds?

Thanks, a lot.

Kn

Ivanhr · Answer

Yes, that structure works in some situations. Idioms such as "Time is of essence/importance" are quite common. But note that while it's quite ok to say

This problem is of importance. or

This problem is one of importance.

you can't do the same with the time sentence.

~~Time is one of essence.~~

I think the latter doesn't work because time, unlike a problem, is unique. I can't be quite sure why "he's of happiness" is wrong, perhaps it's just unidiomatic to say that, that is people just don't say that.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you for advice again, Ivanhr

I think I can understand it now.

I will take this as one of many idiomatic expressions.

Thank you very much!

Kn

Of happiness

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