[Grammar] Warn "on" vs Warn "about/of"

[inquisitiveteacher]

I've seen newspaper articles (by Reuters, etc) with headlines that contain the words "warns on" (e.g. "Roubini warns on inflation"). If you google "warns on" with the inverted commas, you'll see many instances of articles with that in the headline. I would have thought that "warns about" or "warns of" would be more natural.

It seemed odd to me and so I did some research and couldn't find any dictionary that would use the preposition "on" with "warn".

Is this a special case use for Newspaper headlines - surely it can't be that all these reputable newspapers got it wrong? Or could it?

Thanks.

 

[jutfrank]

Are you able to post some links to specific examples of use for us to consider?

 

[inquisitiveteacher]

Are you able to post some links to specific examples of use for us to consider?

Sure, by just googling "warns on", here are some headlines from newspapers:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nouriel-roubini-on-economic-outlook-and-inflation-132954798.html ("Roubini warns on inflation...")
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/hea...agency-warns-on-easing-restrictions-1.4601619 ("...EU agency warns on easing restrictions")
https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/ne...kemp-warns-nuances-esg-portfolio-construction ("Morningstar SIO Kemp warns on the nuances of ESG portfolio construction"
https://www.ft.com/content/a3c84b4f-0c1b-43d9-a85c-0e419ff6f721 ("Serviced office group IWG warns on profits")
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brooke...e-warns-on-password-strength/?sh=722452fb731e ("Google warns on password strength")

These are just some. Thanks.

 

[5jj]

A quick look at those articles suggests to me that warns about would be natural, warns of would not.

The reputable newspapers did not 'get it wrong'. They simply chose on as a shorter word than about in this headline, just as they chose warns rather than has given. Newspaper headlines follow different conventions from those of normal spoken or written English.

 

[Andromeda]

I've seen newspaper articles (by Reuters, etc) with headlines that contain the words "warns on" (e.g. "Roubini warns on inflation"). If you google "warns on" with the inverted commas, you'll see many instances of articles with that in the headline. I would have thought that "warns about" or "warns of" would be more natural.

It seemed odd to me and so I did some research and couldn't find any dictionary that would use the preposition "on" with "warn".

Is this a special case use for Newspaper headlines - surely it can't be that all these reputable newspapers got it wrong? Or could it?

Thanks.

"Warn on" is wrong. Warn about or against somebody/something, or Warn somebody of something, or warn somebody off.

1. Warn him of danger.
2. Warn her against eating indigestible food.
3. The officer gave us no warning of his visit.
4. He was warned about the consequences.
5. I was warned off buying it.

Note: The grammar of headlines is often non-standard.

 

[5jj]

"Warn on" is wrong.

It is not wrong in newspaper headlines.

Note: The grammar of headlines is often non-standard.

Quite.

 

[jutfrank]

I think I can see some slight variation in use in the examples given in post #3. I'd say the use of the preposition on in some of those cases has the same meaning as in cases where we use on in the sense of 'on the topic of'.

Google warns on password strength = Google warns on [the topic of] password strength

When we use the prepositions about/of in the pattern 'warn (somebody) about/of something', the object of the preposition is something potentially harmful that needs to be paid attention to. That obviously isn't the case in the Google example—password strength is not a potential danger in itself but rather a topic to which the warning applies.

Generally speaking, different prepositions have different meanings.

 

[inquisitiveteacher]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, I know that newspaper headlines are often different and thus I questioned in my original post whether this could be a special case use that works for newspaper headlines. Seeing that people do think this is the case, my next question would be where would I go to find out more about these newspaper headline conventions. Is there a book or some authoritative resource? Thanks.