The English Oracle

When are you "fascinated with" something, and when are you "fascinated by" it?

--------------------------------------------------
Rise to the top 3% as a developer or hire one of them at Toptal: https://topt.al/25cXVn
--------------------------------------------------

Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Hypnotic Puzzle3

--

Chapters
00:00 When Are You &Quot;Fascinated With&Quot; Something, And When Are You &Quot;Fascinated By&Quot; It?
00:18 Accepted Answer Score 15
00:45 Answer 2 Score 1
01:16 Thank you

--

Full question
https://english.stackexchange.com/questi...

--

Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

--

Tags
#wordchoice #prepositions

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 15


With: If the object of the fascination is something that can be held, handled, or manipulated (Rubik's cube for example), then someone can be fascinated "with" it.

I was fascinated with his car.

By: If - for example - someone is reading an interesting article, they may be fascinated "by" it.

I was fascinated by her voice.

Source: Yahoo Answers.




ANSWER 2

Score 1


(i) "by" names the agent responsible for the action.

By is commonly the preposition whose object is the agent of the passive verb:

I was fascinated by her voice: This is the passive form of Her voice fascinated me.

(ii) "with" names the instrument that was used for/caused the action.

I was fascinated with his car. Here, fascinated is an adjective and "with his car" modifies fascinated.