Kirk Mahoney . com

I recently saw this in an email message.

Problem:
The preposition “about” should never follow the verb “discuss”.

Explanation:
The definition of the verb “discuss” is to consider by argument or comment; to write or talk about.

Therefore, (quote) “discuss about” (unquote) literally can mean to talk about about.

Following the verb “discuss” with the preposition “about” seems to be a fairly common English blunder, given that a search of Google for “discuss about” (with the quotation marks) returned approximately 1,340,000 matches.

I believe that this blunder represents a belief by some people that the verbs “discuss” and “talk” are equivalent, given that (quote) “Let’s talk about it.” (unquote) is grammatically correct and given that a search of Google for “talk about” (with the quotation marks) returned approximately 120,000,000 matches.

Solution:
“Let’s discuss it.”