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What's the difference between "take over control of" and "take control over"?

English Language & Usage Asked on October 31, 2021

I’m currently reading India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy written by Ramachandra Guha, and in one of the starting pages of the book, the author has written the sentence.

After the events of 1857 the Crown took over control of the Indian colonies.

I’ve two questions here:

  1. If the sentence below is grammatically correct and passes the rules of the English language?
  2. If it can replace the original sentence (written above) keeping the context same?
  • After the events of 1857 the Crown took control over the Indian colonies.

If the sentences have any difference in the meaning, please enlighten me with it.

2 Answers

The sentence

After the events of 1857 the Crown took over control of the Indian colonies.

is correct, because before then the territories were controlled by the East India Company.

So the sentence says that the [British] Crown took the responsibility from that company, rather than being the first party to take control. There is no duplication of prepositions:

After the events of 1857 the Crown took over / control of the Indian colonies / [from the East India Company].

Answered by Weather Vane on October 31, 2021

"took over control": would be like taking the task of controlling/overseeing upon oneself. "took control over": would be like bringing a situation under control which is out of control.

I think in this particular case you would need to use "of" to indicate the former e.g., take over control of the colonies.

Answered by Canute S on October 31, 2021

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