Hello,
I ran across this sentence:
She made a point about not keeping tabs on him.
Does it mean that she mentioned that she didn’t keep tabs on him?
Thanks!
It rather means that she made sure not to keep tabs on him, she took care not to, she made it clear that she wasn’t going to keep tabs on him. To make a point is to make a clear statement about your opinion or intentions, about what you find important.
Can ‘make a point of’ be used here instead of ‘make a point about’ and do so without changing the meaning of the sentence?
Thank you
Yes, absolutely; “of” is even the more common choice.
I would say that ‘make a point of’ is correct in this sentence, not ‘about’.
Hello, Bev
That’s what threw me off on my first encounter with this sentence.
Because I know of “make a point of”, but I’ve never heard of “make a point about”.
Now the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Thanks!
‘Make a point about’ is used, but not in this context.
Make a point of - doing something
Make a point about - tell about something
She made a point about the way in which it was handled when they discussed it later.
She made a point of handling it very carefully.
Thank you, Bev.
That clears things up!
I have an additional question though - is there any perceivable difference between the following two sentences:
- She made a point of handling it very carefully.
- She made it a point to handle it very carefully.
Yeah I suppose you might call it wrong when “about” is used in that sense. I have heard/seen it used that way though; but now that I think about it sounds wrong. Here a quote of the wrong usage:
entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ … 785407.ece
Tort, I’d say both of your sentences have the same meaning and are interchangeable.
make a point of doing something
idioms.thefreedictionary.com/make+a+point+of
Blackberries tested of rain. Soams made a point of eating one every year and by the flavor could tell what sort of year it had been. (J. Galsworthy, “The Silver
Spoon”)
She grinned and I saw why she made a point of not laughing. With her mouth closed she was a rather pretty girl. (E. Hemingway, “The Sun Also Rises”)
However, there is my card, since you make a point of having it. (H. Marryat, “Under the Lilies and Roses”)
make a (one’s) point = prove, express my point view, make a remark
You are as bad as Arthur when you try to make your point. (J. London, “Martin Efden”)
Listen, for God’s sake, or I’ll never make my point. (J. B. Priestley, “London End”)
“Stop!” said Rosa. “You’ve made your point!” (I. Murdoch, “The Flight from the Enchanter”)
Alright basically and they budget towards it I see and that sort of thing Now I’ve not given you a lot of chance to speak because you said you don’t want to go and to, but I want Yeah to cover a wee bit of ground here, I’m just trying to make a point to you about how many closes you’re probably not aware for the minute, these are only a few of them, right, similar situation close, right, lost sale close, right the didn’t I cover that close What do you mean by lost sale close?
Can I borrow your briefcase? Mm. Thank you. Ca, can I make a point about the tick now?
If you wan na make a point about that well we’ll point about them erm there is er a comment erm in this erm erm yeah on paragraph, paragraphs four and five, page five the first of we will buy them including all the legislation that will reduce and if you got up to page three, paragraph six there’s a claim that levels are eight percent higher on the same money!
I’d like to make a point about this question of an agricultural land quality criterion in the policy.
Would you tell me whether the last four sentences were written by untaught people?
Of the last four quotes, numbers 1 ("Alright basically …) and 3 (If you wan na …) are written so poorly that they should be disregarded altogether. No offence, but I can barely understand what these tangles of incomplete sentences are supposed to mean.
In quotes 2 and 4, it is not clear whether “make a point about” is used in one way or the other, so that we cannot draw any conclusions from them.
Added to which; if ou only want to ask about the last 4 sentences, why add all the superfluous distractions?