Opinion of, Opinion on, Opinion about

Opinion of, Opinion on, Opinion about Opinion of, Opinion on, Opinion about Opinion of, Opinion on, Opinion about By Maeve Maddox A reader objected to the use of â€Å"on† in an example given in a post about prepositions: REFERENCE: He asked my opinion on the matter. IMHO, I think this use is a stretch. I would substitute about for on. He asked my opinion about the matter. More and more it seems that writers have forgotten the word about and use on instead, a rather annoying tendency. According to an informal web search using quotation marks around the phrases, opinion of is more common than either opinion on or opinion about: â€Å"opinion about† 7,470,000 hits â€Å"opinion on† 18,600,000 hits â€Å"opinion of† 52,800,000 hits The OED entry for opinion reflects this apparent preference, offering one example each for â€Å"opinion on† and â€Å"opinion about,† but 24 for â€Å"opinion of.† All three sound fine to me. Here are some quotations from newspapers: Looking for political cover, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday, â€Å"Everybody I know in the Senate, everybody is in favor of maintaining coverage for pre-existing conditions. There is no difference of opinion about that whatsoever.† Expert opinion on game-related research is further split, with hundreds of academics calling findings linking playing video games to violence flawed, while others argue that studies show â€Å"either no relationship between playing video games and violent behavior, or an ‘insignificant’ link between the two.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:25 Subordinating ConjunctionsFor Sale vs. On Sale45 Idioms About the Number One