Correctly Use To vs. For | Prepositions in English

How would you finish this sentence in English?

The job interview I have next week is very important to me

or for me? If you're looking at that sentence and thinking, I don't know,

that's the problem, those two words,

to and for stress me out.

They give me headaches and cause anxiety because I never know which one to use.

And I don't want to make a mistake. If that sounds like you,

I want you to know that you're not alone.

These two little words do cause a lot of confusion. Today,

my number one goal is to eliminate that confusion,

to eliminate the headaches that these two little prepositions cause,

and instead help you become crystal clear on

when to properly use to or for in English.

But first, if you don't already know,

I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

This is exactly where you want to be every week to get the confidence you want

for your life and work in English. In this lesson today,

I want to highlight three common situations where we need to

decide whether to use to or for in English as we

go. I'm going to help you understand which one to choose and why.

Plus sometimes you may need to make some changes to the structure of your

sentence. And again, I'll help you know exactly how to do that.

At the end of this lesson,

I'm also going to include a short quiz to make sure that you know exactly

how to use to and for in English correctly.

[Inaudible].

The first situation we're going to look at today is when to or for can be

used to talk about our reason or our intention for doing something.

They give us the explanation of why. Let me give you two sentences.

As an example, I went to Spain for a wedding.

I went to Spain to see my best friend and both of those

sentences, the, for a wedding or to see my best friend,

explain why I went to Spain.

They give you the intention or the reason for going.

And both of those sentences are absolutely correct,

but there is a difference in the grammatical structure of those sentences.

Let me give you two more and I want you to see if you can begin to identify the

pattern that's being used. This morning on the way to work,

I stopped by the grocery store for some coffee.

This morning on the way to work,

I stopped by the grocery store to buy some coffee.

Take a look at those two different pairs of sentences and see if you can

identify what is the difference between using to and for

in those sentences for a wedding,

for some coffee,

or to see my best friend to buy some coffee?

What do you notice?

The sentences with the preposition for are followed by a

noun for a wedding, for some coffee.

The sentences with the preposition to are immediately

followed by a verb to see and to buy

all of those examples are perfectly correct.

As long as we follow that structure. So let's give it a try.

I'm going to share two more sentences with you and this time I want you to see

if you can identify which preposition should be used in each

sentence. Sentence. Number one in a few months,

I'm traveling to California. ___ a conference.

In a few months, I'm traveling to California, ____ a conference.

The second example in a few months,

I'm traveling to California ____ speak at a conference.

So what do you think in which sentence should I use for,

and in which one should I use to,

hopefully you said in a few months,

I'm traveling to California for a conference.

We're following that preposition for, with a noun. And in the second sentence,

in a few months,

I'm traveling to California to speak at a conference in

a moment, I'll share a few more examples with you as a quiz. But before we do,

let's take a look at our second situation where we need to decide whether to use

to or for in this second situation,

the prepositions to and for can be used to indicate

who is the recipient or who is receiving

something from someone. Let me give you two examples.

Yesterday.

I bought a birthday card for my sister yesterday.

I bought a birthday card to send to my sister in those two

sentences. We have to my sister and for my sister,

both of them again are highlighting who the recipient is.

So how do you know which one you should use?

Let's take a look at this sentence yesterday.

I bought a birthday card to send to my sister. In that example,

I'm using the verb send,

which indicates some kind of movement or transfer a movement from

point A to point B.

When we use verbs that indicate some movement exchange

or transfer, we follow those verbs with to.

Let me give you some more examples.

To give something to someone,

to sell something to someone,

to send something to someone,

to mail something to someone.

Let me give you a couple more example sentences. Yesterday,

I went to the post office to send note cards to my

students. Again, I'm using that verb send.

So I'm indicating some movement from me (Point A) to my

students (point B). another example.

Imagine you have an important event coming up soon.

Maybe it's a presentation in English and you've decided to buy a new suit or a

new shirt, maybe a new tie, but the one you want isn't available.

So while you're at the store, the shopkeeper says,

we'll order it for you and we'll send it to you when it arrives.

Once again, we're following that rule. We have the verb,

it send indicating some movement or exchange,

and it's followed by two to send something to someone

in a moment, we'll have a little test to see how you're doing, but before we do,

let's focus on one more situation. And to do that,

we're going to go back to the example sentence I used at the very beginning.

The job interview I have tomorrow is very important to me or for me,

which one of those is correct. Truthfully, both of those are possible,

but there is a slight difference in the meaning.

When we say that something is important to me versus something is important for

me,

something that is important to me indicates that it has

personal value attached to it.

It may not have a lot of financial value,

but it might have some emotional value or it might be attached to an

important memory. For example,

I have a pair of earrings that don't have a lot of financial value,

but they do have personal value. To me,

they're significant to me because they were a gift from my grandfather.

One of the last gifts that he gave me and I have a wonderful memory of when he

gave me those earrings.

So I might say that these earrings are very important to me and I

would be devastated.

I would be so sad if I lost them.

Or if someone took them away from me,

there is personal or sentimental value attached to them.

What about you? Is there something that you have,

maybe it was a gift or something that you inherited that has

significant personal value or sentimental value? If so,

then you can say that it's important to you. Now,

if something is important for you,

that indicates that there's some kind of benefit, it may benefit you personally,

it may benefit you financially.

It may benefit you physically or maybe even benefit your career.

For example, this job interview is important for me,

that would indicate that it's important for my career growth.

It may present an opportunity for me, similarly,

developing appropriate work life balance is important for

your health. Again,

the focus is on the benefit that it brings to your health.

Now that you have those three situations of using to and for

to indicate intention or the reason for doing something

using to and for to indicate who a recipient is.

And lastly, to highlight why something is important,

either due to its personal value or the benefit that it

brings to you, let's do a little quiz.

I'm going to share five sentences with you. And based on what you learned here,

I want you to decide whether to use to or for in each sentence when you're

finished. If you want to get the right answers,

I recommend visiting this lesson on the Speak Confident English website.

I'll leave a link below and that's where you'll find all the answers

sentence. Number one, after a lot of practice and preparation,

she feels ready ____give her presentation tomorrow.

What do you think? Number two,

after a lot of preparation and practice she's ready ____ her

presentation tomorrow. Number three,

I can't forget to order flowers _____ my friend's birthday.

Number four recently,

one of my students told me that the opportunity to get practice and

feedback on job interview questions was very important ____ her

confidence. And finally, number five,

when you're finished with that draft, will you send it _____ me by email?

Once you're finished answering those five questions,

be sure to visit this lesson on my Speak Confident English website,

where you'll find the correct answers. You can also ask questions,

share comments or ideas for future lessons with me there inside the

lesson at the very bottom in the comment section,

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have a wonderful week. Thank you so much for joining me.

And I look forward to seeing you next time for your Confident English lesson.