OF - FROM

Many learners find it difficult to know when to use ‘of’ and when to use ‘from’ in English.
Very often this comes from the fact that in a number of languages the same preposition
is used for both 'of’ and ‘from’.
The clarifications below are intended to serve as a guide for English learners.

OF

• ‘Of’ for possession :
  
  To denote possession, the apostrophe followed by s ('s), (for example: Tom's), is used
  for living things or groups and institutions.
  
  
  • Tom's house.
  • The dog's tail.
  • The government's policy.
  
  ‘Of’ is used when referring to inanimate objects, to mean that something belongs
  to something else.
  
  
  • The roof of the car.
  • The title of the book.
  • The name of the game.
• 'Of' is used in certain expressions such as :
  
  
  • It is nice (good /kind /generous /silly /stupid etc.) of (somebody) to do (something)
    
    - It was nice of you to invite me.
    - It was generous of Tom to pay for lunch.
    - It was stupid of Sam to leave the window open.

• ‘Of’ is used after adjectives :
  There is no real pattern – you need to learn them as you meet them. Here are some examples, but please remember that this is not a complete list :
  
  - afraid of
  - ashamed of
  - aware / unaware of 
  - capable of
  - fond of
  - proud of
  - sure/certain of
  - tired of 

• 'Of’ is used after certain verbs :
  Again, this is not a complete list, but here are some examples :
  
  - accuse (somebody) of something
  - complain of
  - dream of 
  - hear of
  - remind (somebody) of someone/something
  - think of

FROM

• ‘From’ is used to refer to origins :
  
  'From' is used to indicate that something originates or comes from something else or
  some person. For example,
  - Kate comes from England
  - The passage is from a poem written by Lord Byron.


• From - To / From - Until :
  'From' is used with the prepositions 'to' and 'until' to mark the beginning and ending point of an action in time. For example,
  - I work from 9 to 5 every day.
  - We will be in London next week from Tuesday until Friday.
• 'From' after adjectives :‘From’ is seldom used after adjectives but in British English we find :
  - different from 
• ‘From’ is used after certain verbs :
  This is not a complete list, but here are some examples :
  
  - borrow from
  - disappear from
  - discourage from
  - prevent from
  - protect from