All About the Word About! - Proofread My Papers Academic Blog

All About the Word About! - Proofread My Papers Academic Blog All About the Word About! One of the most common problems our customers have is how to use the word about correctly. This is particularly tricky because about is a common word and can be used in several contexts. Well run through a few of these uses here. About: On the Subject Of As a preposition, the word about can be used to link nouns and verbs, such as when using about to mean concerning or on the subject of: We spoke about her neighbors awful choice of house paint. However, a common mistake here is using about with discussed. This is incorrect; even though we speak about something, the term discuss doesnt require a preposition. As such, if we were to use discussed in the sentence above, it would simply be: We discussed her neighbors awful choice of house paint. About: To Affect The word about can also be used to mean to affect, as in: There is nothing we can do about our neighbors house. Its staying lime green. About: Around We can also use it to mean distributed around an area: In my town, there are several horribly painted houses about. Or on ones person: She concealed the blue paint about her as she crept up on the house in the dead of night. About: Approximately or Nearly It can also be used to mean approximately, as in: After repainting her neighbors house, she was caught by the cops. They say shell get about 10 months in jail for criminal damage. Furthermore, it can mean nearly: In her mugshot, she was about the same height as Jackson Pollock. About: Movement We can even use the word about to mean movement: As the cops drove up, she was still flinging blue paint about wildly. These are just some of the ways in which about can be used, so dont forget to check a dictionary if youre unsure whether you should be using this term in any particular example.