This post explains the use of the preposition ‘for’. Prepositions are words that play a vital role in sentence structure and meaning. They help establish relationships between different elements in a sentence, such as nouns, pronouns and phrases, by indicating location, time, direction, possession and more. Prepositions can be challenging for non-native speakers of English due to their nuanced use. Because prepositions tend to vary across languages, it is very difficult to give an exclusive translation from say Dutch to English, or Spanish to English, and one preposition frequently translates to two or three in the other language, and vice versa.
Mastering prepositions is essential for clear and accurate communication because the use of an inappropriate preposition in combination with a certain verb can distinctly alter the intended meaning of a sentence. For more details on prepositions in general, please see the relevant post. Learning the various contexts in which prepositions are used is the mark of an advanced speaker of a language; there are around 150 prepositions altogether in the English language, but the most commonly used and confused are ‘along’, ‘at’, ‘by’, ‘during’, ‘for’, ‘from’, ‘in’, ‘of’, ‘on’, ‘to’ and ‘with’.
This post is going to focus on the preposition: for.
The origins of the word
The word ‘for’ is a preposition in the English language that serves various functions, such as indicating purpose, destination or benefit. It is an ancient word whose origin can be traced back to Old English, where it was also spelled ‘for’ or ‘fór’. However, its roots have been traced even further back to the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European languages.
In Proto-Indo-European, the language spoken in 2500 – 4500BC from which all Indo-European languages are thought to have evolved, the word ‘per’, pronounced ‘por’, served as a preposition with a similar meaning. Over time, as the Indo-European languages evolved and diversified, this word took on various forms and pronunciations in different branches of the language family, separating out into the Proto-Germanic branch to which English belongs today, as well as other language descendants such as Proto-Balto-Slavic and Proto-Italic, to name a couple.
Loosely translated, the word is still ‘per’ in Italian, has slightly morphed into ‘por’ in Spanish, ‘vor’ in German, ‘voor’ in Dutch, ‘pour’ in French, ‘pro’ in Czech, and ‘för’ in Swedish. As dialects evolve and tribes split and split again, and travel and intermingle and establish new settlements, new ways of speaking and words change their sounds, this is a natural process. One must also take into account that there were no fixed standard languages in past ages, let alone standardised forms of writing.
Purpose or intention
In the English language, ‘for’ is often used to indicate the purpose or intention behind an action:
- I bought flowers for my mother = The purpose is to express love or appreciation
- She studied hard for the exam = The purpose was to prepare for or achieve a good mark
Beneficiary
‘For’ is used to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action:
- I made a sandwich for you = You are the intended recipient of the sandwich
- They organised a charity event for the homeless = The homeless people are the intended beneficiaries
- This book is for you
Duration of time
‘For’ is used to indicate the duration or length of time for which an action or state persists:
- He worked late into the night for three hours = The duration of his work was three hours
- They stayed at the beach for the entire weekend = They were at the beach for the entire duration of the weekend
Exchange or substitution
‘For’ can be used to indicate an exchange or substitution of something:
- I traded my old mobile for a new one = An exchange of phones took place
- She substituted butter for margarine in the recipe = Butter was replaced with margarine
Support or in favour of
‘For’ can express support, advocacy or being in favour of something or someone:
- He voted for the new proposal = He supported or favoured the proposal
- I’m for stricter regulations on pollution = I advocate or support stricter regulations
Comparison or contrast
‘For’ can be used to indicate a comparison or contrast between two things:
- She is tall for her age = Her height is comparatively greater than expected for her age
- The car is expensive for its features = The price is high considering the lack of features it offers
In exchange for payment
‘For’ can be used to indicate payment or price:
- I bought this book for £10 = The book was purchased at the price of £10
- They sold their house for a good price = The house was sold at a satisfactory price
Phrasal verbs and common collocations
A phrasal verb is a native English expression containing a verb and a preposition (and sometimes also an adverb or other parts of speech); it is a phrase that functions as a verb. The English language, along with a number of other Central European languages, but perhaps slightly more so, is notorious for having a large number of phrasal verbs. The following are some of the better known verbs that collocate with ‘for’, along with some phrasal verbs with their definitions provided.
- To account for = give information about
- To ask for
- To care for
- To fall for = to believe something, to love someone
- To look for = to search for
- To make up for = to compensate for
- To stand up for = to take the side of a party, to support
- To stand for = to represent
- To thank for
- To wait for
As is common with phrasal verbs, these examples are not all simply a collocation of a verb and a preposition, and some of these word combinations are puzzlingly not true to their literal meanings!
Conclusion
These are some of the principle ways in which the preposition ‘for’ is commonly used, although it may have additional nuances and applications depending on the context. As you will now have understood, while there are three types of prepositions: temporal prepositions, spatial prepositions and dependent prepositions, ‘for’ is a multifaceted dependent preposition.
If one were to translate ‘for’ to its equivalent in another language such as French, Spanish or German, great confusion would arise because although there are similar forms in other languages that evolved from the same word historically, ‘for’ can be translated as ‘by’, ‘in front of’ or ‘through’, to name just a few alternatives. For this reason, it is best to learn English dependent prepositions in context with their best known collocations and most common uses, as detailed in this post!
If you have any comments, questions or requests, please do add them below.
Exercises to practise
Have a go at the following exercises to see whether ‘for’ is the correct preposition in the given contexts.
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