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In "Jurassic Park 2," John Hammond said "It was difficult to convince them as to what they were going to see."
Is it grammatically possible or usual to substitute "as to" for "of"? I've consulted my dictionary for it and not found such an expression.
Thank you.
"Convince as to what" is some ad hoc combinatorics, which are not incorrect, but this would not be included in a dictionary.
There is also a subtle difference in meaning here. "Convince of" means to convince someone of the content, the gist of something, the heart of the matter. "Convince as to what", I'd say, is about some outward circumstances of the matter; some objective facts; which is which. Not the deep meaning and truth of something.
'convince sb of S' = make someone believe in the truth of S
'convince sb as to S' = make someone believe in the truth of something about S
