A2–B1
About — Topics, Thoughts, and Emotions
Use 'about' to introduce the subject of conversation, thought, worry, or complaint — the thing that speech or emotion is directed at.
About — Topics, Thoughts, and Emotions
'About' functions as a topic marker — it points to the subject that thinking, speaking, reading, or feeling is directed at. It appears in a wide range of verb and adjective collocations that learners must acquire as chunks. Learner corpus data from the English Vocabulary Profile project shows that about-collocations are well established by B1 level in productive use, but wrong preposition substitution (particularly 'for' and 'of' in place of 'about') persists into B2, especially after emotional adjectives like 'worried', 'excited', and 'curious'.
About After Verbs of Communication and Thought
We need to talk about your exam results.
I often think about my childhood.
Have you heard about what happened?
She knows a lot about Italian cooking.
I often think about my childhood.
Have you heard about what happened?
She knows a lot about Italian cooking.
About After Emotional Adjectives
I'm really worried about my driving test.
She's been complaining about the noise.
Are you excited about the trip?
She's been complaining about the noise.
Are you excited about the trip?
About as Topic Marker
I'm reading a book about space travel.
He gave a lecture about climate change.
He gave a lecture about climate change.
Common Mistakes
✗ I often think for my childhood. → ✓ I think about my childhood.
✗ She knows a lot for cooking. → ✓ She knows a lot about cooking.
✗ I'm worried for my test. → ✓ I'm worried about my test.
✗ She knows a lot for cooking. → ✓ She knows a lot about cooking.
✗ I'm worried for my test. → ✓ I'm worried about my test.