Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Keepongoing]

my students use "to" when they should use "for" and vice versa. How do I teach them the proper way to use these. I have looked for answers to this unsuccessfully

[Ya-ta Boy]

Do you mean in situations like this?

Use 'to' preceded by the following nouns:
� damage to something
Example: I did a lot of damage to my car the other day.
� an invitation to a celebration of some type
Example: We were invited to their wedding.
� reaction to something
Example: Her reaction to his behavior was quite funny.
� a solution to a problem
Example: He provided the solution to our financial situation.
� an attitude to something (or TOWARDS something)
Example: Your attitude to your problems doesn't help them get resolved.


Use 'for' preceded by the following nouns:
� a check for (amount of money)
Example: She gave me a check for $50.
� a demand for something
Example: Unfortunately, there wasn't enough demand for our product.
� a need for something
Example: There is a real need for discipline in this class.
� a reason for something
Example: I have a reason for doing that!

[faster]

It's pretty sad, but there's just no easy way to learn preposition use in English. Take, for example, the verb "look," whose meaning changes dramatically when paired with different prepositions:

look at
look for
look up
look into
look in on
look over
look on
look to
look up to
look after
look around

Or of course the common example "get on a bus, on a boat, on a train, on a plane but in a car" or "go to school, go to work, go to your house, but go home".

English is a mess sometimes. If you try to search for lists of verb/prep. combinations, you'll quickly notice that no "complete" list exists. It's just not possible.

[some waygug-in]

I think you should teach them as complete phrases, treat each as 1 unit of vocabulary. I'm not saying this is the best way, but it's helpful.

look after (someone)

go to school

study for a test


etc.

[Woland]

Right - students need to learn prepositions in combination with the nouns/verbs that govern them. There are patterns of meaning to preposition use, and with enough exposure students can start to get a feel for what is correct, but until then, it's vocabulary learning, and that's memory work.

'To' does have a specific grammatical function, introducing an infinitive; there what learners need to know is which verbs govern a to-infinitive and which, a bare infinitive.