Hello, I was stumbling into some phrases and I’m confused about the usage of のこと and について. I was told that “彼のこと” was more correct to say rather than “彼について”, which is used more for things than people (for example 日本語について..). Can somebody explain it to me? Thank you in advance

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1. I’m no expert (non-native speaker with a college degree in the language), but I would think it would have to do with directness. のこと is just ‘facts about something’, at least translated into English. について is more closely ‘about’ and I believe the main difference is one of connection; it applies the things connected to the noun that precedes に.

   (We’re going to ignore, for now, the fact that 彼 itself is used pretty rarely.)

   So when you say 彼について, you’re implying that you know the person well enough that you know how they’re connected to other things, *and* it’s pretty direct. 彼のこと does not include this concept of connection, so it’s safer.

   I liken it to how you have to use slightly different language when referring to someone else’s thoughts. (You can’t just say someone else is thinking a certain thing (outside of omniscient narration)… you have to soften it somehow.)

   Does this help at all?