Careful + of/about/with/on

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Dear teachers,

In my class, my teacher wrote on the blackboard:

Be careful …the dog.
a. of
b. about
c. with
d. on

My teacher chose of.
But in my English - Vietnamese dictionary, I saw: careful + of/about/with/on.

Do you think the 4 a,b,c,d above are all correct and interchangeable? If not, the difference is what?

Best regards
Tung Quoc

PS:
1/To emphasize “Be careful of the dog”, can I say:
Do be careful of the dog?

2/ To emphasize “Don’t be careful of the dog”, can I say:
Don’t you be careful of the dog?

2

Your teacher was right

3

Dear Pamela,

I know all teachers are right, but, coul you tell me the difference btw careful +“of”,“about”, “with”, “on” ? Are they interchangeable?
Coul you answer my 2 questions in PS?

Best regards
Tung Quoc

4

Hi,

You asked:

Careful of has the sense of being cautious with the idea of mind. Often a notice warning that there is a dog in someone’s house is: Beware of the dog.

Careful about has the idea of paying attention to something you are doing - some kind of action as in: Be careful about crossing this road because the cars travel very fast.

Careful with suggests handling something/someone with partucular attention as in: Be careful with that glass ornament because it is very delicate.

Careful on is somewhat unusual because ‘on’ transfers more to another object rather than having a close association with ‘careful’ as in: Be careful on getting (when you get out of) out of the train.

From the choice available in your sentence, it would seem that ‘of’ is the most suitable.

Alan