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Politics4687 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
The use of "subject + be + of"
I find a dialogue in a TV show, which is "the rumors are in washington of frequent private meetings at the white house".
And the question i want to come up with is why should we have to put an "of" afther the linking verb here? and what's the difference from ""the rumors are sth"?
well..I seems to be able to sense some differences here but i can't tell what it is and how to distinguish and when should we use which one~"~
likewise, what's the exact difference between "I was a coward" and I was too much of a coward"?
PS: In short, what i want to is how to use of "be + of + noun sentence
And the question i want to come up with is why should we have to put an "of" afther the linking verb here? and what's the difference from ""the rumors are sth"?
well..I seems to be able to sense some differences here but i can't tell what it is and how to distinguish and when should we use which one~"~
likewise, what's the exact difference between "I was a coward" and I was too much of a coward"?
PS: In short, what i want to is how to use of "be + of + noun sentence
Top answer
The rumors are frequent private meetings-- No, meetings themselves are not rumours; rumours are 'unsubstantiated news' and meetings are 'gatherings of people'. The rumours are of frequent private meetings -- Yes. 'Rumours' means 'unsubtantiated news' and 'of' means 'about': news about meetings .
- The rumors are frequent private meetings-- No, meetings themselves are not rumours; rumours are 'unsubstantiated news' and meetings are 'gatherings of people'.
- The rumours are of frequent private meetings -- Yes.
- 'Rumours' means 'unsubtantiated news' and 'of' means 'about': news about meetings .
- Your other sentence pair is unrelated to the above: I was a coward.
- I was too much of a coward / I have eaten too much of the food -- '(Too) much' here is just a pronoun as a quantifier, I think.
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4 Answers
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The rumors are frequent private meetings-- No, meetings themselves are not rumours; rumours are 'unsubstantiated news' and meetings are 'gatherings of people'.
The rumours are of frequent private meetings -- Yes. 'Rumours' means 'unsubtantiated news' and 'of' means 'about': news about meetings.
Your other sentence pair is unrelated to the above:
The rumours are of frequent private meetings -- Yes. 'Rumours' means 'unsubtantiated news' and 'of' means 'about': news about meetings.
Your other sentence pair is unrelated to the above:
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Rumors of frequent private meetings at the White house are floating around in Washington.
I think the sentence needs to be restructured carefully.
When the noun has to be augmented with a describing quality we can use 'of' before the noun in the sentence. 'Too much of a coward' is an emphasised form of the other phrase.
I think the sentence needs to be restructured carefully.
When the noun has to be augmented with a describing quality we can use 'of' before the noun in the sentence. 'Too much of a coward' is an emphasised form of the other phrase.
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When the noun has to be augmented with a describing quality we can use 'of' before the noun in the sentence.Whether that is true or not, I am unsure, but that is irrelevant to this case.
'Too much of a coward' is an emphasised form of the other phrase.Obviously because of 'too much', but that does not explain 'of', which was what was being question
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