Proves to be a great help or proves to be of great help—which one is right? Also, tell me the use of ‘of’ in the sentence. At times, we say like:
• She is of my age.
• It is of no use.
• Loans are of two types.
• It is of a huge benefit.
I do not understand why we use ‘of’ in such cases. Please explain.
To me, both the types are acceptable. They are found used without difference. The use of ‘of’ is optional (though less common these days) in sentences like ‘She is my age’, ‘It is no use’ etc.
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
I believe that the answer is: Because – grammatically speaking – the use of “of” is correct.
Someone who understands WHY it is correct may explain it to us.
For many, many years, native speakers have been dropping the “of” in many cases.
Here is one explanation *: “Most short function words, including ‘of,’ have a weak (unstressed) form when the vowel sound changes to a schwa (sounds like the ‘u’ in ‘up.’). … Because most function words are unstressed nearly all the time, they are likely to be dropped.”
Please carefully study these examples from a great grammar book ** published in 1931 (yes, in 1931). Even then people were already dropping the “of.” The brackets show you that in “correct” English, the “of” is needed but that people usually drop it.
In 2015 America, many people no longer say something like “What type of movie would you like to see tonight?” They just say “What type movie would you …?” or “What type computer do the neighbors have?”
Credits: * That “one explanation” comes from someone who posted on a website called Quora; ** that “great grammar book” is the two-volume masterpiece called A Grammar of the English Language by George Oliver Curme.