Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[tisogai]

1. He offered John $5000 for his car.
2. He offered $5000 to John for his car.

What's the difference between the two types of sentence above?
I mean what's the difference in their feelings when native English speakers say these two sentences.

Thanks so much.

[CP]

They are both fine. Probably sentence 1 would be heard more often than sentence 2. When we have an indirect object (John) and a direct object ($5000), we can put the IO first, as in sentence 1, without "to", or we can put the IO second, as in sentence 2, with "to."

You cannot use "to" in sentence 1, and you cannot omit "to" in sentence 2.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[tisogai]

Thanks, CP!

Is there any difference you are aware of, for example,
something like when you say #1, your focus is more on "John"
and when #2, it's more on $5000? No?

Thanks.