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I wonder when "care" is used as a verb, what differences are between "care of something/somebody" and "care something/somebody", besides that "care" is used as a v.i. in the first one and v.t. in the second one.

For example:

Money is the least thing I should care (of).

Which one is better here?

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Eh? I'm sorry, but I can't make heads or tails of your question. – Marthaª Mar 15 '12 at 17:10

closed as not a real question by jwpat7, kiamlaluno, Matt Эллен, Mahnax, cornbread ninja 麵包忍者 Aug 26 '12 at 4:34

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

In the context you gave, about would be better:

Money is the least thing I should care about.

I agree with cornbreadninja about the word least, though. Last sounds more natural:

Money is the last thing I should care about.

Care of is not used as a verb phrase. Likewise with care. You cannot care of something, and you also cannot care something. A legitimate verb phrase using care of is take care of, which means protect/meet the needs of. Also, as FumbleFingers says below, care of is possible when care is a noun.

As a side note, if you ever see the common phrase care for, bear in mind that its meaning is different from care about, especially when used with a negative.

If you don't care for something, it means you don't like/prefer it.

If you do care for something, it means you take care of it.

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haha you are too fast for me. Yes, but I'll reverse it now! – FumbleFingers Mar 14 '12 at 16:05
Thanks! Why not "care of"? – Tim Mar 14 '12 at 16:06
Mind you, you can care for your ageing relatives, in the sense of "look after". It's only when negated that you get the "be [un]interested in" sense. – FumbleFingers Mar 14 '12 at 16:08
@Tim: You can speak of "care of the elderly", but that's a noun, and has different sense to yours. When you use "care" as a verb, you don't follow it with "of". – FumbleFingers Mar 14 '12 at 16:09
up vote 3 down vote

You would want to say

Money is the least thing I should care about.

but this is somewhat clunky. A less clunky version would be Money is the thing about which I care the least or Money is the last thing I care about.

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