about
- 01 A1 Beginner
prep.on the subject of someone or something.
prep.concerning or relating to a particular subject, person, or event.
Simple“We sat in the café and talked about our plans for the summer.”
In context“The documentary raised several challenging questions about the long-term environmental impact of deep-sea mining operations.”
UsageCommonly follows verbs of communication like 'talk', 'write', or 'think'.
PitfallWe discussed about the problem. We discussed the problem.The verb 'discuss' is transitive and does not take the preposition 'about'.
Synonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
prep.carried with you or near you.
prep.carried on one's person or located in the immediate vicinity.
Simple“I don't have any cash about me at the moment.”
In context“The witness claimed the suspect had no identification about him when the police arrived at the scene.”
UsageOften used with personal pronouns like 'me', 'him', or 'her'.
- 03 A1 Beginner
adv.used to show that a number or time is not exact.
adv.indicating an approximate amount, degree, or time; nearly.
Simple“The journey to the airport takes about forty minutes by train.”
In context“The restoration project is expected to cost about five million dollars, though the final figure depends on material availability.”
UsagePlaced immediately before the number or measurement it modifies.
Synonyms - 04 B1 Intermediate
adv.in various places or in no particular direction.
adv.in or to various places; scattered in different directions within an area.
Simple“They spent the afternoon wandering about the old town.”
In context“Papers were strewn about the office, suggesting that the staff had left in a significant hurry.”
Teacher's tipIn American English, 'around' is much more common for this spatial sense.
Synonymsaroundhere and there - 05 B2 Upper Intermediate
adj.out of bed and moving around; or simply present nearby.
adj.in motion or out of bed; present in the vicinity.
Simple“Is the manager about? I need to ask her a quick question.”
In context“Despite the early hour, there were already several fishermen about on the pier preparing their nets.”
UsageUsually functions as a predicative adjective after the verb 'to be'.
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *ana- Proto-West Germanic *ana- Old English on-? Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁epider. Proto-Indo-European *h₁pi Proto-Germanic *bi Proto-West Germanic *bī Proto-West Germanic *bi- Proto-Indo-European *úd Proto-Germanic *ūt Proto-West Germanic *ūtō Proto-West Germanic *ūtan Proto-West Germanic *biūtan Old English būtan Old English onbūtan Middle English aboute English about Preposition and adverb from Middle English aboute, abouten, from Old English abūtan, onbūtan, from on (“in, on”) + būtan (“outside of”), itself from be (“by”) + ūtan (“outside”). Cognate with Old Frisian abûta (“outside; except”). Adjective from Middle English about (adverb).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For Mandarin speakers Mandarin lacks a direct equivalent to the preposition 'about' for indicating subjects; instead, it uses the frame structure '关于 (guān yú) ... 的 (de)' or simply places the topic at the start of the sentence. Learners often omit 'about' in English, producing errors like 'We talk his plan' instead of 'We talk about his plan.'
The Mandarin verb for discussing a topic, '讨论 (tǎo lùn)', is transitive and does not take a preposition, leading speakers to incorrectly produce 'discuss about something' by over-applying the pattern from 'talk about' or 'think about'.
For Japanese speakers Japanese phonology does not allow word-final consonants other than /n/, causing the addition of the epenthetic vowel /o/ to the final /t/: 'about' /əbaʊt/ becomes /abaɯto/.
Japanese uses the postposition 'について' (ni tsuite) for the 'concerning' sense of 'about', leading learners to place 'about' after the noun phrase rather than before it in early-stage production.
In Japanese, 'about' as an approximation is often 'くらい' (kurai), which follows the number; this frequently results in the word-order error 'ten people about' instead of 'about ten people'.