Jose Carillo's English Forum

English Grammar and Usage Problems => Use and Misuse => Topic started by: tonybau on April 25, 2020, 08:11:45 AM

Title: The Use of "Taken Care Of"
Post by: tonybau on April 25, 2020, 08:11:45 AM

Hi, Joe,

Congratulations on this forum’s more than a decade of existence!

To say the least, I’ll have to say there’s a lot of learning for me and for others who are non-native English speakers. This enlightening forum has been at the “frontline” against the epidemic of English “Use and Misuse”.

After quite a while being away from the forum, I thought I might as well make use of this extended vacation to polish my English.

Phew! 23 pages of Use and Misuse topics and I didn’t find anything on the use of “taken care of” and the phrase’s proper usage. Honestly, I randomly read on topics that I thought might answer my question but may have missed out on those I didn’t (due to sheer laziness).

So, I took the easy way out--ask the expert, post this query and get answers.

I always thought “taken care of” was the correct form and not “taken cared of”, which I feel is wrong and awkward. But I may be wrong.

Which of these two is correct? The serious Covid19 cases were taken care of at the ICU, or, The serious Covid19 cases were taken cared of at the ICU.

Thank you for thoughts.

tonybau

Title: Re: The Use of "Taken Care Of"
Post by: Joe Carillo on April 25, 2020, 05:00:43 PM

Hi, Tonybau! I'm delighted to see you again in the Forum's discussion boards after quite a long while, and thanks for your felicitations on the Forum's having existed and survived for over a decade now.

Of course you're right in having always used "taken care of" instead of "taken cared of," so the grammatically correct construction for the sentence you presented is as follows: "The serious Covid19 cases were taken care of at the ICU."

I wrote an essay about this usage way back on January 18, 2018 entitled "The disturbing high incidence of the faulty 'taken cared of' usage." (http://josecarilloforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=6762.0) I pointed out that it's when people use “take care of” in the past participle form that the problem often arises. Simply click the indicated link to read it.

(http://josecarilloforum.com/imgs/taken-care-of_proper-usage-1A1.png)

You can actually access and browse most of my English-usage essays that have been published in The Manila Times from 2013 until the present day by clicking this link to the Forum's "2013-2020 'English Plain and Simple' columns in The Manila Times." (http://josecarilloforum.com/forum/index.php?board=23.0) You can surely further polish your English by reading the essays during your rest breaks from your work helping patients fight off Covid-19.

Good luck, Tonybau, and keep yourself safe always despite your close encounters with that extremely nasty virus!

Title: Re: The Use of "Taken Care Of"
Post by: tonybau on April 25, 2020, 07:11:08 PM

Many thanks, Joe.

I just read your essay and am glad that the phase "taken care of" is exactly what I have thought it to be.

That issue having been taken care of, it seems the virus issue still hasn't. In Baguio, we have new cases--the latest involving Covid19 frontliners, two of them doctors. WHO considers the increasing number of hospital personnel in the country succumbing to the disease, especially doctors, to be alarming. It seems the virus is here to stay for a while.

We will try our best to keep safe, thanks.

Best regards and be safe, as well.

Tonybau