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Adam Sidorczuk Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
strange "of"
"Central Asia is of geostrategic importance to the EU."
"Of" in this sentence seems to be grammatically incorrect to me. Could someone explain me why "is of" has been used instead of "has". What does exactly mean?
"Of" in this sentence seems to be grammatically incorrect to me. Could someone explain me why "is of" has been used instead of "has". What does exactly mean?
Top answer
We say that something is "of importance", meaning that it is important. You can consider "of importance" to be a set phrase. The word "importance" can then be modified by an adjective, as in your example.
- We say that something is "of importance", meaning that it is important.
- You can consider "of importance" to be a set phrase.
- The word "importance" can then be modified by an adjective, as in your example.
- Similarly, "of great importance", "of historical importance", etc.
- etc.
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3 Answers
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We say that something is "of importance", meaning that it is important. You can consider "of importance" to be a set phrase. The word "importance" can then be modified by an adjective, as in your example. Similarly, "of great importance", "of historical importance", etc. etc.
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Adam Sidorczuk"Of" in this sentence seems to be grammatically incorrect to me.No, "of" is definitely correct.
Adam SidorczukCould someone explain to me why "is of" has been used instead of "has?"In fact, "has" would make that sentence unnatural.
As an alternative to "of strategic importance", you could sa
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Now I understand! I've realized that in my native language there is the same, but rarely applied and very formal expression 
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