Please help me find the correct answer
When you think about Heinz, you may probably think ______ tomato ketchup.
In the blank space, is the correct preposition about or of?
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1Have you answered your own question by choosing "about" as the preposition marking "Heinz"? The nature of the sentence militates in favor of a parallel construction.– Rob_SterCommented Dec 13, 2017 at 12:56
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1The Heinz quote actually works as printed, ellipsis and all (only 3 dots needed for the ellipsis, though).– LawrenceCommented Dec 13, 2017 at 13:09
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You may find this Ngram graph tracking the frequencies of "you probably think of" (blue line) versus "you probably think about" (red line) for the period 1800–2008 useful (or at least interesting). But it bears noting that "You probably think of England" and "You probably think about England" (for example) don't mean the same thing.– Sven YargsCommented Dec 13, 2017 at 17:52
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1"may probably" seems a bit redundant unless you're realllly trying to hedge which doesn't seem necessary here– Azor Ahai -him-Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 18:38
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3 Answers
Either one works, and is grammatical, but have different meanings. I would choose of.
In this context, think of suggests to me the third definition on this The Free Dictionary page:
- To recall some thought or image to mind: I thought of my childhood when I saw the movie.
Or, to put it in the structure of your sentence, "When I saw the movie, I thought of my childhood." You can replace think of with "recall."
This structure suggests something like "the first thing that comes to mind when I hear X is Y," which sounds like what you're going for, as in most people who hear the word Heinz would immediately think of their ketchup.
Think about to me suggests much more introspection and thought on the object.
From The Free Dictionary again:
to contemplate someone or something Whenever I think about him, I get goose bumps. I don't want to think about it.
In other words, that would make your sentence mean something like "Whenever anyone thinks about Heinz, they also think about ketchup." This seems like a bit of an overstatement, and I would recommend the first one. You can't as cleanly replace think about with "recall."
You could also say that to "think of" something is a bit of a momentary thought, but to "think about" is at least a few minutes, and so it's natural that the shorter process ("think of" would be a subset of "think[ing] about" something else) would be a subset of the larger.
answered Dec 13, 2017 at 18:47
The first word that came to mind was 'about' because you've already used it and implanted it into the reader's mind by the time they reach the blank space.
If you were to use 'of', you would also follow with 'of' in the blank.
'Of' just think 'about' it.
Thinking about something takes time. The receiver only has to come up with the name of a sauce.
Either preposition is acceptable. However, if you want to get finicky, 'of' is more correct for the reason I stated.
