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Fight
Fight (/faɪt/) is an English verb.[1]
Fight is an irregular lexical verb. The third person form is “fights" (/faɪts/), the -ing form “fighting.” It has an irregular preterite and past participle “fought" (/fɔ:t/). This may be over-regularised to *"fighted.”
Fight is an ambitransitive verb. The person or thing that is fought against can be either a direct object or an indirect object, e.g.
- “Ali fought Foreman"
- “Ali fought against Foreman"
Prepositions[edit | edit source]
Fight is used with a number of prepositions:
| Preposition | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| against | “Ali fought against Foreman" | is used for an opponent: |
| with | “Britain fought with America" | The construction “fight with [indirect object]" is ambiguous, though this ambiguity can usually be resolved by context. For example “Britain fought with America" could mean “Britain fought against America" (as e.g. in the War of 1812) or “Britain fought alongside America" (e.g. in the Second World War). For brevity and clarity, it may be best to avoid using "with" and instead use “against" or “alongside.”
One can also fight with a weapon, e.g. "he fought with a sword,” although it’s obvious this means "he fought using a sword,” rather than #"he fought against a sword" - the weapon would have to be a homophone or homograph (possibly “club") to create a possible ambiguity. One can also fight with a quality, e.g. “fight with bravery" though “fight bravely" sounds better. |
| for | “The colonists fought for freedom" | A cause, also particularly "lives" |
| over | “The victors fought over the spoils" | Object(s) that the victor would expect to receive. |
| about | ||
| alongside | “Britain fought alongside America" | When the two nouns fought together |
| back | “Sally fought back tears" |
Collocations[edit | edit source]
- fight a losing battle,
- fight tooth and nail
- fight back
- fight fire with fire
