Of – Possession

表示拥有

Of is mainly used as a possessive. For example,

of主要作为所有格来使用。例如：

He's a friend of mine.

他是我的朋友。

The color of the house is red.

这个房子是红色的。

It is important to remember that it is more common to use the possessive 's' or the possessive adjective in English, than to use 'of' - even if 'of' is grammatically correct.

记住，比起使用of，英语中更常使用’s或所有格形容词，即使of在语法上也说得通。

Thus, the sentences above would generally be in these forms:

所以，以上的句子通常都以这样的形式出现：

He's my friend.

他是我的朋友。

The house's color is red.

这个房子是红色的。

Common Phrases with 'Of' - All of / Both of

关于of的常见短语——All of / Both of

Of is also commonly used with 'all' and 'both' to describe a common trait that many objects share. For example,

of也可以和all和both连用，用来表示许多事物的共同点，例如：

All of the students in the class enjoy volleyball.

班上所有的同学都喜欢排球。

Both of the assignments are due at the end of the week.

这两项任务的截止日期都是在周末。

Common Phrases with 'Of' - One of the most ...

关于of的常用短语——One of the most ...

Another common phrase with of is 'one of the + superlative form + plural noun + singular verb'. This phrase is commonly used to focus on a specific object that stands our from a group. Notice that although the plural noun is used, the singular phrase takes the singular conjugation of the verb because the subject is 'One of the ...'. For example,

还有一个关于of的常见短语，就是one of +最高级形式+名词复数+动词单数。该短语常用来表示某个具体的事物在集体中非常引人注目。注意，虽然短语中的名词是复数形式，但动词使用的是单数形式。因为主语是One of the…例如：

One of the most interesting things about my job is the people I meet.

我的工作最有趣的地方之一就是我所见到的人。

One of the most difficult subjects for me is math.

对于我来说，最难的学科之一就是数学。

From – Origins

表示来源

From is generally used to express that something originates from something else, that something comes from somewhere, or some person. For example,

From常被用来表示某事物来源于另一事物，某物来自某地或某人。例如：

Jack comes from Portland.

杰克来自波兰。

This formula derives from the work of Peter Schimmel.

这个公式是皮特·舒密尔开创的。

This pearl comes from the South Pacific.

这颗珍珠来自南太平洋。

From - To / From - Until

From can also be used with the prepositions 'to' and 'until' to mark the beginning and ending point of time of an action or state. Generally, 'from ... to' is used with past tenses, while 'from ... until' is used when speaking about future actions. However, 'from ... to' can be used in most situations. For example,

From也可以和介词to和until连用，用来表示某个动作或状态的起止时间。一般来说，from…to和过去时态连用，而from…until则是表达将来的动作。但是，from…to适用于绝大多种情形，例如：

I played tennis from two until four in the afternoon yesterday.

昨天下午两点到四点，我都在打网球。

We are meeting in Chicago from Monday until Thursday.

从周一到周四，我们都在芝加哥开会。