ENGLISH
REFERENCE

awareness of sth

prep. phr..
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford

prep. phr.. the state of knowing that something exists or understanding a specific situation.

prep. phr.. a noun phrase followed by a prepositional complement, indicating conscious knowledge or cognitive perception of a particular fact, situation, or phenomenon.


SIMPLE

The campaign aims to raise awareness of mental health.

CONTEXTUAL

Public awareness of climate change has grown significantly over the last decade due to increased media coverage.

COMPLEX

A heightened awareness of cultural nuances is essential for diplomats working in international relations to avoid unintentional offense.

Usage

the noun 'awareness' is almost always followed by the preposition 'of' when specifying the topic of knowledge.

Teaching tip

focus on the collocation 'raise awareness of' as it is a high-frequency academic and professional chunk.

Pitfall

They have awareness about the problem.They have awareness of the problem.while 'about' is sometimes heard in casual speech, 'of' is the standard preposition used with awareness.

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