phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Find out about something

Posted by Smokey Stover on April 18, 2004

In Reply to: Find out about something posted by mary on April 17, 2004

: "find out something" should be same as "find out about something". But, where does "find out about something" come from?

Id you find something out about Fred, it's not the same as finding out Fred. "I found out Fred." Actually, you can say, "I found him out," meaning I'm on to him. But if you find out something, that something is presumably a fact. If you find out ABOUT something, that something (or someone) is not the fact that you found out. I found out about Fred means that I found out some fact about Fred. I found out the fact, and if the fact was about Fred, then I also found out about Fred. Or perhaps I found out the danger of uncooked hamburgers, and found out about uncooked hamburgers. These two usages are different and meet different needs. SS

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.