The key difference between to and for is thattoindicates a movement of a person or a thing from one place to another or from one person to another whileforindicates a purpose, an intended goal, object or recipient of a perception, desire, or activity.
Since these two words are two commonprepositionsin the English language, they have numerous meanings and usages. In addition to its roles as a preposition,foralso sometimes functions as aconjunction. Likewise,Tois also used as an infinitive marker and sometimes as an adverb.
CONTENTS
1.Overview and Key Difference
2.What Does To Mean
3.What Does For Mean
4.一边by Side Comparison – To vs For in Tabular Form
5.Summary
What Does To Mean?
Tois a preposition that is used with a word in the fourth case called as thedative case. Look at the usage of the prepositiontoin the following sentences:
He gave a book to his classmate.
Francis traveled to London from Paris.
In the first sentence, you can see that a book was given by somebody to his classmate, and in the second sentence, you can find that Francis moved from one place to another.Tois used in the sense of movement in both sentences. That is to say,toindicates a movement of a person or a thing from one place to another or from one person to another. In the first example, the usage oftoindicates the movement of the book from a person to his classmate. Similarly, the second example indicates the movement of Francis from Paris to London.
In addition,tois used as a function word to indicate many different meanings. Some of these include,
Direction – Ex:two miles to the west
Purpose, intention, tendency, result – Ex:drink to someone’s health, came to her aid
What Does For Mean?
The prepositionforis also used in the dative case but with a slight difference. Moreover, the prepositionforindicates the importance of a person or a thing for whom an action has been done as in the following sentences.
I purchased a book for my father.
He did everything for his elder brother.
In both of the above-mentioned sentences, you can understand the importance attached to the two persons, ‘father’ and ‘elder brother’ in the two sentences, respectively.
In addition,forhas the following meanings:
Having the purpose of:
Parking is for customers only.
These flowers are not for sale.
Intended for/ intended to be given to:
There was a phone message for you.
I forgot to buy a present for her baby.
What is the Difference Between To and For in English Grammar?
To vs For |
|
| Toindicates a movement of a person or a thing from one place to another or from one person to another | Forindicates a purpose, an intended goal, object or recipient of a perception, desire, or activity |
| Role | |
| Preposition, infinitive marker, and adverb | Preposition and conjunction |
Summary – To vs For
Both the above-discussed prepositions are used in the dative case. However, there is a difference between to and for in their meaning and usage.
Image Courtesy:
1. “To My Valentine.” By Unknown –Missouri History MuseumURL: (Public Domain) viaCommons Wikimedia
2. “For Sale by Owner Sign” By Vectorink – for sale by owner sign, Public Domain) viaCommons Wikimedia
wow interested
I was wondering whether the liturgical prayer in the Mass should be rendered as, “To the praise and glory of thy name”, or “for the praise and glory of thy name”? It goes on, “for our good and the good of all our Church”. It not only sounds better to use “to” in the first clause, but I was wondering if it’s grammatically correct? I didn’t quite understand that “purpose” example above; if by importance, one should use “for” in this example, but I still somehow like “to”. So both to and for can denote purpose? Thanks.
So, are ‘we’ moving to the praise and glory of thy name? We’re doing this praise and glory for our good…?