OF (complex phrases) – English Grammar Profiler

The third most frequent word in the English language is used in a lot of different ways. ‘OF‘ is most often in a prepositional phrase, but it is also used in many other types of phrases.  Below we list the ranked frequency found in the iWeb corpus.

1 OF (IO) 328813259

2 OF (II22) 11680309 (complex 2 part prepositional phrases)

1  OUT OF 6044503

I wanna get them out of here.

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2  BECAUSE OF 2052897

You want me to stay because of the way you feel about me.

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3  INSTEAD OF 1611729

Why didn’t we send a man in space instead of a monkey?

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4  OUTSIDE OF 647355

You can’t touch me outside of the grounds.

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5  AHEAD OF 517797 6 AS OF 432508 7 OFF OF 325384

8  IRRESPECTIVE OF 37121

3 OF (II33) 4159625 (3 part)

1 IN TERMS OF 828078 2 IN FRONT OF 732056 3 ON TOP OF 552921 4 ON BEHALF OF 264836 5 IN NEED OF 133064 6 IN CHARGE OF 132316 7 IN FAVOR OF 130396 8 IN SUPPORT OF 122177 9 IN SPITE OF 111360 10 IN CASE OF 106279 11 IN SEARCH OF 94036 12 IN LIGHT OF 86185 13 IN EXCESS OF 84313 14 IN PLACE OF 83740 15 BY WAY OF 81362 16 IN RESPECT OF 79866 17 BY MEANS OF 79139 18 IN FAVOUR OF 78004 19 IN LIEU OF 55056 20 ON ACCOUNT OF 44167 21 IN VIEW OF 28122 22 IN POSSESSION OF 28032 23 FOR FEAR OF 26876 24 BY REASON OF 25176 25 IN PURSUIT OF 24766 26 IN AID OF 8850 27 IN RECEIPT OF 8420 28 IN DEFENCE OF 5422 29 IN DEFIANCE OF 4834 30 IN BACK OF 4024 31 IN FACE OF 2554

32 IN QUEST OF 1661

4 OF COURSE (RR21) 2297404 (adverb)

5 OF (RR22) 515052

1 KIND OF 503757
2  SORT OF 279419

9 OF (II44) 104920

1 ON THE PART OF 74342
2  IN THE LIGHT OF 28236

11 OF (RR42) 64669

ALL OF A SUDDEN 63713

12 OF (RG22) 40209

1  UPWARDS OF 35959
2  UPWARD OF 3720

14 OF (JJ32) 29982 (adjective)

1 MATTER OF FACT 37665
2  OUT OF DATE 26861

15 OF (RR53) 14785

1 A HELL OF A LOT 9092
2 A HECK OF A LOT 5454

16 OF (II42) 9375

1 OUT OF TOUCH WITH 7235
2  OUT OF LINE WITH 1988

17 OF (CS22) 4430 (instead of) conjunction followed by non-finite clauses

18 OF (NP1) 2555 Used in proper names

19 OF (RG44)

IN THE ORDER OF 1577

21 OF (NN132) 143 (noun)

MATTER OF FACT