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care: take care (of), care (about) and care for

take care of​

Take care of normally means ‘look after’ or ‘take responsibility for’.

  • Nurses take care of sick people.
  • It’s no good giving Daniel a rabbit: he’s too young to take care of it.
  • Ms Savage takes care of marketing, and I’m responsible for production.

Take care (without a preposition) means ‘be careful’. Some people use it as a formula when saying goodbye.

  • Take care when you’re crossing the road, children.
  • ‘Bye, Ruth.’ ‘Bye, Mike. Take care.’

care (about)​

Care (about) is used to say whether you feel something is important to you. This is very common in negative sentences. About is used before an object, but is usually left out before a conjunction.

  • Most people care about other people’s opinions. (not … take care of / care for other people’s opinions)
  • I don’t care whether it rains – I’m happy.
  • ‘I’ll never speak to you again.’ ‘I don’t care.’
  • ‘Your mother’s upset with you.’ ‘I couldn’t care less.’ (= I don’t care at all.)

care for​

Care for can be used to mean ‘look after’.

  • He spent years caring for his sick mother.

Another meaning is ‘like’ or ‘be fond of’, but this is not very common in modern English.

  • I don’t much care for strawberries.