For and To/Use

For and To/Use
Message from again57 posted on 24-12-2012 at 10:48:01 (D | E | F)
Hello everybody,

I have a new question about the English grammar and I thought it would be more interesting to ask it in English. So, I'd like to know when I must use "for" and "to" in front of before a verb, to express "pour" in French. So, here an example:
"I want it to give it to him!" But, Could I replace "to" in front of "give" by "for"?
In this case, it would be something like that: "I want it for giving it to him!"

Thanks so much for your help and excuse me for my (approximative)bad/broken English.

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Edited by lucile83 on 24-12-2012 11:27

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Re: For and To/Use from brettdallen, posted on 24-12-2012 at 15:23:20 (D | E)
Hello,

You were right writing your post in English and it's not so poor as you tend to think !

"TO vs FOR" is not an easy topic but you can find clues to get the hang of them. To start with, I'll tell how I understand "TO". For me, this word very often works like an "arrow" that goes from one place/person to another.
Just take this unambiguous example : "I go to Paris every two months." (From A to B). Now think about these other examples : Send (sth) TO (s.o), Write (sth) TO (s.o), Give (sth) TO (s.o), Speak (about sth) TO (s.o) and so on and so forth.
I guess you realize how clear it is this way. Let's go a little bit further now. You've probably noticed that TO, in these examples, introduces "s.o", i.e a noun. What happens if it is followed by a verb? I'd say it's quite similar.
"I'd like to go on holiday this summer." Where is the A and where is the B? For me, A is the present situation and the fact that holidays are not to be taken for granted (money problem, maybe) whereas B is how I wish the future to be (/bi:/ ;) ).
You'll probably find plenty of occurences of that by reading/listening to English. In French, the terms used to refer to that usage are "opérateur de visée" and I think they're very clear.

Let's move on to the other hot term : "FOR"!
This one can be used to express "purpose" as in "Let's go out for a meal."/"I went to Sheffield for a job interview last October."/"I did it for you."(here you could say "Hey Brett you must be kidding ! We've got A and B!!!" and you'd be right! but here the focus is on "purpose")/"This present is for you."
Note that here "for" is followed by an noun and if you had to use a verb, "TO" would replace it, as in "I did it to help you"("purpose" again, very close to "in order to",) (in fact this is what happens when the clause has a person as subject, otherwise you'll use "FOR + -ing" as in "Brakes are here for slowing down the speed of a car." sorry for this unimaginative example..)

This is just the beginning of a very long story, but you'll have to make it step by step and it'll be easier and easier.

Hope this helps.

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Re: For and To/Use from again57, posted on 24-12-2012 at 16:33:17 (D | E)
Hello Brett!

Thank you so much for your answer. I've learnt something from you. Indeed, the example that you thought not to be a very imaginative, in fact is very good! I'm thinking about that example: "Brakes are here for slowing down the speed of a car." So, I understood well that if the subject is a person, so I must use "To" if it's followed by a verb. In return, if the subject of the sentence is anything else than a person, so I must use "For" even if it's followed by a verb, in that case, the verb after will take the ING form. Though, in all cases, "for" is always associated with the idea to benefit someone or something. "To" involves the notion of movement, except in the case where "to" replaces "for" as above.

Again, thanks so much Brett, your answer is really useful for me!

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Re: For and To/Use from lucile83, posted on 24-12-2012 at 16:46:12 (D | E)
Hello,

You can read some more information here
Link

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Re: For and To/Use from notrepere, posted on 24-12-2012 at 19:18:45 (D | E)
Hello

To answer your original question, when you replace the French construction pour + infinitive, you can usually replace "pour" with "in order to" + a bare infinitive in English, but often the "in order to" is optional:
Il l'a fait pour nous aider.
He did it (in order to) help us.
OR
He did it to help us.

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Re: For and To/Use from again57, posted on 25-12-2012 at 17:26:28 (D | E)
Hello Lucile and notrepere,

Thank you for your answers, Lucile I did the exercise from your link. Obviously, I understood the functioning well.
But, to be honest I think I still have a little work before understanding all of the subtleties in English.
Again, thank you everybody for your time and answers.
Now all I have to do is to work!

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Edited by lucile83 on 25-12-2012 18:04

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