'of' preposition immediately after 'be'
Hello everyone,
Today I came across with some sentences that they look odd and complex in using preposition 'of' after 'be' form of verb. I am not actually sure what they mean here. The reason might be that we get used to see 'of' in possessives, or 'the sheer size of the ship' in which the preposition just connected the two nouns with each other. This aspect of using preposition for connecting a kind of verb to a noun is not straightforward. would you please make it clear?!
1. No one disputes that vitamin C is 'of' great value in the treatment of scurvy.
2.I hope what I have written will be 'of' benefit to someone else.
very much thanks in advance.
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Answers · 3
3
This case identifies an attribute and does not make an equivalence (like a predicate-noun copula would).
Vitamin C is not great value; it is valuable.
Adjective to genitive:
valuable vitamin C -> vitamin C of value
beneficial writing -> writing of benefit
So...
vitamin C is valuable -> vitamin C is of value
writing is beneficial -> writing is of benefit
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