Hi, I have read a sentence like this: Letting people know of the damage their negligence causes is responsible behavior. I wonder about the use of "of". I am more familiar with the sentence without "of", such as: Letting people know the damage their negligence causes is responsible behavior. My question is, why of is used in the sentence? I suspect maybe it's something connected with "causes", but I have never read anything like something causes of something, while cause here is a verb. Can someone help me clarify this usage of "of"? Thank you!
drop the rest of the sentence after 'damage' and you should see/hear why either 'of' [or 'about'] is needed there for clarity and good grammar...
I think i can understand why. and that arises another question: what's the difference between know and know of? I think both can be used in this sentence. anyway, thank you!
can you actually 'know damage'? can you 'know about/of damage'? do your answers make it clear what the difference is?
Informally either can be used, but the former is problematic and will bother grammatically-sensitive readers, for the reason Mamma pointed you towards. It would mean that the person knows damage when in fact they merely know about it.
I have to thank you both. I see that know means a thorough understanding of the matter while know of indicates a general grasp of the matter -not so serious.
