# of - It's very kind of you



## cheshire

"It's very kind *of* you to help me." --This special usage of the preposition "of", where did it come from? I'm guessing it must have come from Latin. Could you write out example sentences with the similar usage of a preposition in other languages?

It's very kind "of" you to help me.


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## Ilmo

We say in *Finnish*:
Se on kovin ystävällistä *teiltä*...(or *sinulta)*
"teiltä" or "sinulta" means "from you"
A little longer translation would be "teidän taholtanne" or "sinun taholtasi" - on your part

The two alternatives depend on the fact that in Finnish there is both the singular you  (=sinä) and the singular polite form of you (=te).


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## Marga H

Polish equivalent would be: *Miło z twojej strony.. *literally means:  Kind on your part..


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## mcibor

In Polish we say:

_To bardzo miło z Twojej strony_
(It's very kind on your part)

In Polish there is no of, because we have declination

Regards
Michał


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## Outsider

Portuguese idiomatic equivalent: _É muito simpático da tua parte_ (lit. "*It's very kind of your part*"). The basic preposition is _de_, which in this case I guess translates as "of".


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## Etcetera

The Russian phrase is very much like the Polish one: Очень мило с твоей стороны. Очень only adds some emphasis, but I've never heard just Мило с твоей стороны, although Как мило с твоей стороны is possible.


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## cheshire

Thanks, but all of the languages so far are all case languages except Portuguese. It'd be great if you specified the case for me.


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## sound shift

I don't know if the "of" in this construction comes from Latin, but I do know that a similar construction is found in German:

_Es war sehr nett von dir_: "It was very nice of you" (_von _= "of").


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## Hoogee

Swedish.

Det är snällt av dig.


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## cheshire

Soundshift, it's tricky because "von" can mean either "from" or "of." It's very kind of you to point it out!

Please specify the case immediately after the preposition, everyone.

eg. f shkole [dative]/f shkola [accusative]


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## Petrucci369

Danish:

Det er meget venligt _af_ dig


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## sound shift

cheshire said:


> Soundshift, it's tricky because "von" can mean either "from" or "of." It's very kind of you to point it out!
> 
> Please specify the case immediately after the preposition, everyone.
> 
> eg. f shkole [dative]/f shkola [accusative]



My pleasure! Perhaps we should ask our Scandinavian friends whether *av*/*af *can mean "from" as well as "of". By the way, the German "dir" in my earlier post is dative.


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## Ilmo

In Finnish the case is *ablative* (no preposition).


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## parakseno

Romanian:



> "It's very kind *of* you to help me."


"E/Este foarte drăguţ din partea ta că mă ajuţi."

"ta" in this case is in the Accusative. The preposition in this case is a compound one: "din partea" (composed of the preposition "din" and the articulated form of the noun "parte"(=side)). So in this case, "of you" gets translated as "din partea ta".

Parakseno.

Note: Oh, and about the "e/este" part. It means the same thing ("(it) is" - in this case "it" doesn't get translated in Romanian as it is implied by the form of the verb) either one says "e foarte..." either "este foarte...". Just that the first form is shorter.


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## tanzhang

In Tagalog:

ang taynga ng aso - the ear of the dog
 ng - of

but ng can mean other things...


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## irene.acler

*Italian*:
E' molto gentile da parte tua aiutarmi.
_
Da parte tua_ is the equivalent of _of you_.


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## Venezuelan_sweetie

In Spanish, it's pretty much the same than in Portuguese, German, Tagalog, and Italian (mmmmhh... See any pattern there?).

"It's very kind *of* you" would become "Es muy amable *de* tu parte". 
Word by word => Es (is) muy (very) amable (kind) *de (of)* tu (your) parte (part).

Prepositions are a pain in the neck, in Spanish, so I'll limit myself to say that the use of "of" is eventually as odd in Spanish as it is in English.

Hope I'm making sense in here...


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## alcesta

cheshire said:


> "It's very kind *of* you to help me." --This special usage of the preposition "of", where did it come from? I'm guessing it must have come from Latin. Could you write out example sentences with the similar usage of a preposition in other languages?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=395890


Serbian/Croatian, litterally:
"Vrlo ljubazno od vas" (od=of, requires pronoun in genitive).


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## Maja

Marga H said:


> Polish equivalent would be: *Miło z twojej strony.. *literally means:  Kind on your part..





Etcetera said:


> The Russian phrase is very much like the Polish one: *Очень мило с твоей стороны*. Очень only adds some emphasis, but I've never heard just Мило с твоей стороны, although Как мило с твоей стороны is possible.


It is also possible to say in Serbian: *to je jako lepo sa tvoje/vaše strane*!


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## divinelight

In Turkish, we usually say "Çok naziksiniz" which means "You are so kind". There is no equivalent of "of you" in this phrase.


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## Outsider

French and Latin here.


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## gao_yixing

In Chinese:
The word order of the sentence is reverse in Chinese. So...we don't have a translation for "of". In fact, the preposition is always a difficulty in learning another language.
I think 你真好 is ok to stand for "it's very kind of you".
Anthony


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## Aurin

sound shift said:


> I don't know if the "of" in this construction comes from Latin, but I do know that a similar construction is found in German:
> 
> _Es war sehr nett von dir_: "It was very nice of you" (_von _= "of").


 
Supplementary details:
Das ist sehr nett von Ihnen. (polite form)


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