“About” and “For” with Adjectives

10 Responses to ““About” and “For” with Adjectives”

1. Ranjeet Singh on May 28, 2010 1:46 am

   Hi,

   Could you please include a post on verb, acting as Gerund/Participle.

   Regards,
   Ranjeet

2. Jason Fenchuk on May 28, 2010 11:52 am

   I was wondering if you could help clear up the meaning of the word factoid in everyday use? I was interrupted in a meeting after supposedly using the word incorrectly. So after a debate, we looked it up and were both correct. My interpretation followed the 2nd meaning of the definition according to Merriam-Webster and my colleague’s interpretation followed the 1st. But to me, they couldn’t seem to be more polar opposites?
   Main Entry: fac•toid
   Pronunciation: \ˈfak-ˌtȯid\
   Function: noun
   Date: 1973
   1 : an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print
   2 : a briefly stated and usually trivial fact

3. PreciseEdit on May 28, 2010 2:01 pm

   Good reference list. Thanks!

4. Kenneth Faulve-Montojo on May 28, 2010 2:06 pm

   What circumstances determine when you use “for” or “about”?

5. Lawrence Miller on May 28, 2010 7:51 pm

   Hm…I never thought about it. Always did it by sound. What is the rule that is followed in knowing which to choose. Reckon I might as well know why I’m right.

6. Kathryn on May 28, 2010 8:42 pm

   I’m with Lawrence Miller–I just know (from years of reading middling-to-good writers) which prepositions can be used with which adjectives. I think. . .

   Ranjeet Singh, while you are waiting for Maeve to do that, you might take a look at The English Club: http://www.englishclub.com/index.htm . Although it is designed for those to whom English is a foreign language, I actually find it quite a useful place to go ferrret out the explanation behind usages I employ instinctively. They seem to have a fair bit to say about gerunds and participles, and the differences between them. . .

7. Lawrence Miller on May 28, 2010 10:30 pm

   Here’s right back at you, Kathryn. I went to http://www.englishclub.com/index.htm and found it is a good source.

8. Kathryn on May 29, 2010 12:09 pm

   Lawrence–glad you liked it. I finally found, on that site, an explanation of the third conditional (and, for that matter, I found out that it was CALLED the third conditional), the failure to use which is one of my all time pet peeves with modern users of English. I’ll have to take a look at what it has to say about adjecctives & prepositions. . .

9. Peter on May 29, 2010 11:25 pm

   I’d never heard that term, either, but I don’t know what you mean about failure to use it; I’ve never noticed that. Except that many Americans say “if I would have (done such-and-such)” instead of “if I had …”, which makes no sense…

10. Kathryn on May 30, 2010 4:16 pm

    Peter–agreed, most Americans can do the third conditional when it involves woulda-shoulda-coulda constructions. But they have abandoned it altogether when the auxiliary verb is might. When was the last time you heard someone say (or you read a recently written sentence that said) “If I had known that, I might have acted differently?” Virtually all modern American speakers and writers would render that thought “If I had known that, I may have acted differently.” Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Have something to say?