Of

preposition, rarely particle, NP junctor

Introduction

often marks a possessor, or a filiation, or a part of a larger ensemble

• That car of hers is a real mess.
• That kid of his is a real mess.
• That part of the house is a real mess.

etymology

from off

translation

Most often, de

preposition

"Of" is followed by a noun or a noun phrase. If a verb follows this preposition, it must be in the form Ving

• We're thinking of buying a new house.
• There is talk of selling the company.

It is is worth noting that with verbs like "think", "dream", "talk", of and about are synonyms.

out of

A very common collocation. (16.2 billion examples at Google.)

• The lawyer got out of the car.
• I got out of working Tuesday. (I don't have to work Tuesday!)

off of

709 million examples at Google!

• I got off (of) the train. (Here the second preposition is optional)
• He made a fortune off of

NP junctor

N1 of N2 vs. N2 N1

• school of music // music school
• a friend of mine // my friend
• the ace of spades // *the king of white
• the spade ace // the white king
• left of center ≠ center left (♯♯ ♬♪: Suzanne Vega)

partitive

• part of the picture
• a piece of the pie
• made up of visible and other, darker matters

more complicated cases

• a hell of a problem
• that jerk (of a) brother of mine