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What else can I give my dog to calm him from fireworks or thunder?

And how soon, out of compassion for him, you will calm him from his sorrows...

It worked pretty quickly to calm him from a storm.

These quotations are all taken from the internet. I have never met a phrase structure like this before. Usually, I don't use calm as a verb and mention the cause of the distress in the same phrase. However, it may come in handy. So, the question arises, can from be the preposition to use, or are these examples awkward phrases in general and better be avoided?

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    About could be a better preposition. How can I calm his fears about fireworks? or simply How can I calm him down? He is so afraid of fireworks!
    – Andrew
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 12:15
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    None of them sounds very idiomatic, but honestly I'm not sure what preposition I would use either! English doesn't seem to have a very good way to say calm someone "versus" or "regarding" the source of their fears. The most fluent way is probably to rephrase the whole sentence, like Andrew suggested, but maybe we're seeing English evolve here.
    – stangdon
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 13:07
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    You're not going to get any good sense of usage by pulling random quotes from the interwebs. None of these sentences are well structured. You just have stumbled into one of many "bad pockets" of English online. Avoid Youtube comment sections too, for the same reason. Andrew has the best answer.
    – FeliniusRex - gone
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 14:31
  • from "used as a function word to indicate physical separation or an act or condition of removal, abstention, exclusion, release, subtraction, or differentiation...: relief from anxiety" merriam-webster.com/dictionary/from
    – Stuart F
    Commented Feb 9, 2022 at 19:02

2 Answers 2

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Since there is no definite opinion on the subject, I suggest using relieve instead of calm as a way out that allows keeping both the meaning and the structure. However, of will be the preposition to use.

relieve in Merriam-Webster

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Being afraid of and being scared of makes me think we can use of with calm too. But somehow it doesn't sound good. Maybe it's better to use something else instead of calm, as Diane said.

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