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Common Mistakes with guilty

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Common Mistakes with Guilty

I am going to tell you some points about the adjective “guilty“, which is related to its prepositions. Let’s check the meaning of guilty before going to its prepositions. Here is the definition of Guilty in some dictionaries:

Oxford:

  adjective
1- culpable, to blame, at fault, in the wrong, blameworthy, responsible; erring, errant, delinquent, offending, sinful, criminal; archaic peccant.
example: the guilty party
2- ashamed, guilt-ridden, conscience-stricken, remorseful, sorry, contrite, repentant, penitent, regretful, rueful, abashed, shamefaced, sheepish, hangdog; in sackcloth and ashes.
Example: I still feel guilty about it. 

Cambridge:

1- feeling guilty 

2- responsible for breaking a law:

example:

The jury has to decide whether a person is guilty or innocent of a crime.
A person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Based on the above definitions for the word “guilty,” it seems to mean doing something wrong, which is equal to breaking a law. This word is an adjective, and sometimes it needs a preposition. There are some prepositions which are used with this adjective,e and the most common and useful ones are “of” and “about”, while some others are used with this adjective, but most of them are not correct or applicable.

Most English learners usually make a mistake in using this adjective with the proper preposition, and they use “for” instead of “of“. So you need to be very careful not to make this mistake, while the adjective “guilty” never takes “for” as a preposition.

Common Mistakes #51

Common Mistakes with guilty
Common Mistakes with Guilty

× He was found guilty for the crime.

He was found guilty of the crime.

Common Mistakes with guilty can be found so much between English learners, especially in using that to use “for” with “guilty” while in English, there is no need to use for with “guilty”. Actually, in English we use of with “guilty” to express that some is committing a crime. Take a look at the following example to understand it better:

× I have never been guilty for cheating in my exams in school.

 I have never been guilty of cheating in my exams in school.

or

× They were been guilty for tax fraud last year.

 They were been guilty of tax fraud last year.

or

× Trump is known as guilty for sexual harassment.

 Trump is known as guilty of sexual harassment.

Actually, in some cases and some situations, it is possible to use the prepositions “about” and “at” with the adjective “guilty” too, but never use “guilty” with “for”.

She felt guilty about what had happened to her friend.

The pilot seems to be guilty of the airplane crash.

The company’s CEO should admit to being guilty of mismanaging the company.

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📖 Related Topics

✅  Common Mistakes in English 
✅  English Idioms
✅  English Proverbs
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