This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2072.
What for?
Grammar tips for a tricky English preposition.
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In today's episode we answer a great listener question about the grammar that we use with the preposition for.
Find out the rule today and how to use it to connect in English.
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Hey there, Aubrey.
What have you got going on today?
Oh, I have to pick my kids up early from school today.
Oh, yeah?
What for?
They have dentist appointments.
Oh, no way is the dentist appointment.
It's the worst, especially for small children, because they have a hard time holding still and it's tickly when they get cleaned.
And my kids have a propensity for cavities as well.
Really?
You get cavities a lot, Lindsay.
Once in a while i do.
Yeah oh, that's not bad.
Usually i'm surprised i don't eat a ton of sugar, but like yeah, we do, is there?
Certain people have propensity for that?
Teeth problems for sure, exactly like different enamel or whatever.
It's genetic.
I, some of my kids have never had a cavity and then One of my twins gets them all the time.
And I feel like the teeth, you know, the toothbrushing habits are about the same.
It's crazy.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Okay.
Well, I mean, we all have to go to the dentist.
It's part of life, right?
But here in this opening today, Aubrey, I asked you, oh yeah, what for?
Supernatural, right?
Is this connected to a student question?
Yes, exactly.
Right.
I wanted you to use that.
It was perfect.
Well done, Lindsay.
Because, yeah, we use this what for in English to say why.
And it's related to a really good question we got about the preposition for.
So we're going to share this amazing grammar question.
One of our business course students, Fabiana.
Shout out to Fabiana, who is incredible.
Yes, she's great.
I love this question.
Should I go ahead and read it?
Yeah, let's do it.
All right.
So Fabiana says, Hi, Aubrey.
What's up?
Could you please help me with a question?
According to my understanding, when we have a preposition followed by a verb, the suffix ing is added to the verb.
However, I've seen some cases that confused me.
For example, I wrote the sentence Louise often goes out for dining and the English app considered it incorrect.
Thank you for your help.
Best, Fabiana.
Such a great question.
Fabiana actually had a couple other grammar questions with this email that we will cover in upcoming episodes.
So be sure to hit follow so you guys don't miss those.
Yes.
Hit that follow button now, guys.
This is the time to get into English, get addicted to all ears English and figure out how to get connection, not perfection, when you speak.
All right.
Yes.
And that's one of the things I really loved about Fabiana's email, because these verbs are absolutely vital for connection right.
You want to be able to chat about what you did this week or the last time you went out to eat.
And these little grammar points, like which verb tends to use which preposition, can really trip you up and maybe rob you of that confidence and keep you from making that connection.
That would be worst case scenario.
Oh, my gosh.
Yes, because we can get distracted. right?
If we don't think we're saying it correctly.
It really takes our energy and our attention, and our attention and energy should be focused on that person in front of us.
That is our whole philosophy, that human connection moment.
So what do we need to know?
Let's learn this now so we can go out there in the world and connect.
Yes, absolutely.
So what Fabiana asked about is tricky in English.
I totally understand why this is tripping her up because some verbs are followed by gerunds.
That's that verb with ing at the end of it.
And some are followed by infinitives.
This is two with the base verb, and some can be followed by either, depending on the context of the sentence.
Oh my gosh.
I love it when we go into grammar, right?
Because we need it.
It's like, we need this grammar.
We need to know it.
So what is the first thing we need to know?
We're going to give our listeners, what is it?
Two or three core, two core laws or rules.
Is that right, Aubrey, today?
Yes, exactly.
We're going to talk about both of these, right?
The first one being that preposition for when it's followed by a gerund, verb ing.
So these are the two cases basically where we're using for.
Some verbs allow for both depending on the context of the sentence.
So we'll give you lots of examples to really make it clear how to use these.
All right.
So the first thing to know is that the preposition for when it's followed by a gerund.
So let's learn about that, when that happens.
Yes.
This is our pro tip.
This is only when you're referring to purpose.
So let's give a couple of examples of when we would have for followed by a gerund.
All right.
So this pen is used for writing.
Right.
And that's your gerund, writing, right?
It's a noun here.
This pen is used for writing or that tool is great for measuring.
Okay.
So the pro tip here, I love when we get our pro tips is that for is used for purpose, right, Aubrey?
Exactly.
When it's followed by a gerund, it's always about purpose.
Always, always, always.
So because you're not referring to the purpose of anything in the sentence that Fabiana sent, you would not say I go for dining.
Right.
It's not talking about purpose.
It's talking about an activity.
Right.
So instead you'd say purpose louise often goes out to dine or louise often dines though we do have a little sort of native english tip here that it's very formal to use the verb dying right, lindsay?
That's an important tip for our listeners right, if you want to connect, be a little more informal at certain times.
To dine, definitely a verb we don't.
We don't really need it, it's right, we don't use it in just day-to-day conversation.
We'd much more likely say Louise often goes out to eat or Louise often goes out to dinner.
We just don't use that verb dying.
Yeah.
To go out to dinner is super common, right?
To go out to eat, go out to dinner.
I like that.
So guys, you know, we're here to show you the 80-20, right?
How can you get the most results from the least amount of work when it comes to learning English?
In that case, just Yo, ditch that word dine.
Leave it behind.
Right.
I almost feel like people would only use it to like be sort of silly formal, like are you dining this evening with your husband?
Like intentionally trying to sound like the queen.
Totally.
Or would you dine with me this evening?
Right.
If you want to be silly and, but really you don't need it.
You mostly don't.
Exactly.
Right.
Instead, eat out, right?
Go out to eat.
So then, when we're talking about purpose here, this is the verb, what we talked about at the beginning of the episode, that we use this all the time.
So I wanted to have this as like a little bonus that we often say, what for?
It's this informal native way of saying for what purpose or why?
I use it all the time.
What about you, Lindsay?
Yeah, what for?
Very casual, very native and natural.
I definitely use it.
Right.
Yes.
What for?
It also kind of just means why, like you said, it means why.
Right.
Exactly.
And the other reason I wanted to kind of point this out is I have heard mistakes with this because it is, like you said, very informal.
It's really too informal, like for at work. this is kind of tricky, right?
If someone said to you, like assigned you a task and you said, what for?
Instead of, like just you know, in a professional way, asking you know the why of something much too informal.
So we might follow up on this on the Business English podcast.
Make sure you're following over there, you guys.
Yeah, I think I have a, like we're forming an episode idea here, Aubrey.
There could be like three kind of gaff that you might make right to informal statements and then how you would correct that at work when your boss says something to you, what for?
No, instead of Can you tell me the purpose behind this?
Or can you let me know what our vision is here?
Where are we going with this?
What's our North Star?
Other things we could say?
Yeah, exactly.
Absolutely.
All right, I'm ready for number two.
Okay, so this is when the preposition for is followed by a noun.
So here you can say, I went for a walk, right?
Fabiana was asking about this because walk here is a noun.
There's no gerund, right?
So the preposition for is often followed by nouns.
The grammar is different depending on whether it's a gerund or a noun that follows the preposition.
Okay, so for example, here's a couple of examples where we're requesting something, right?
So she asked for some water.
Yes.
Yes, or he is known for his speaking skills.
And here, speaking skills is a noun.
Water is a noun.
Of course, you might have an article before that or a pronoun.
But really, for what?
For a noun without the ing.
So this is tricky grammar.
You can see why.
If you're trying to pick apart a sentence and understand why why would I use a verb, ing or not it can seem confusing.
You have to know the context, right?
Are we talking about something being for a purpose or not?
Yeah, that's why we want to stay away from kind of breaking up sentences.
We want to think of them in the context of a conversation of what your meaning is behind what you're trying to say.
I think a lot of our listeners may have learned English in a way that like is diagramming sentences, breaking up the sentences and not really fully understanding it right.
Exactly.
Right.
It's so tricky.
And Fabiana had emailed sort of a follow up question asking is it the same for every preposition that it's always a gerund if it's about purpose?
And I was like, no, unfortunately, like this is about for like for what purpose?
For drinking, for sleeping, for swimming.
Right.
That's when we use these gerunds.
Every preposition sort of has different guidelines for whether or what follows it.
Tricky, Aubrey, tricky.
That's why we like to give you guys role plays.
So hopefully you can remember this role play that we're about to go into and remember the context right.
Yes, this is a fun one.
You and I just ran into each other at the mall.
All right, cool.
Here we go.
I'll start us out.
Oh, I see you bought some books.
Who are they for?
I'm buying a present for my sister.
Do you think she'll like this book?
Yeah, I think so.
That's a great book for curling up by the fire.
Okay, good.
I never know what to get her for her birthday.
Well, the mall's a great place for getting inspiration.
Are you good at knowing what to get people as gifts, Aubrey?
Are you that person at Christmas time?
You know who is Jessica?
I don't know if you know this about her, but Jessica on our team is really good about being thoughtful about gifts and getting people the perfect thing.
I'm not.
I'm likely to give you a book that I would like.
I hope you'll like it.
Most people do that, right?
This is what I want secretly, but I'm going to give it to you.
What about you?
Are you a good thoughtful gift giver?
I'm not very good.
I'm getting better at making little packages.
Like, if you get like a pack of yoga classes, also get them.
I don't know a sweat towel or a mat or something.
That's kind of fun, right?
It's very cohesive and fun.
Thematic gift.
Right.
But that's not a natural skill.
It's something I've learned from other people over the years.
So still working on that skill, Aubrey.
So let's go through this role play.
I first used for just saying who are they for, which is kind of saying like, what is the purpose of those books?
Right, just that preposition.
And then you said i'm buying a present for my sister.
So this is that second use.
It's followed by a noun sister for my sister.
Yes, i love that.
And then we're going back to the first use, right?
And you said yeah, i think.
So that's a great book for curling up by the fire, for doing something right, exactly right.
This is that gerund, that verb ing.
It's a noun phrase that starts with the gerund curling up, curling up by the fire.
Nice purpose, it's good for that purpose.
Why are you doing this thing?
What for right?
Coming back to that okay, what else?
Yep.
And then you said i never know what to get her for her birthday.
And this is that second use.
Again, there's no verb ing here.
Four, followed by a noun her birthday.
All right.
So hopefully that made it clear.
We're just chipping away at this challenge, right?
This grammar challenge, it does depend on prepositions, can be different, right?
As you said, Aubrey, maybe we'll go into another one another time.
Yeah?
Absolutely.
Yes.
And just to keep in mind, to not let this stress you out, right?
In order to build connections, you need that confidence that these types of rules can really rob you of.
I believe.
It's the same for me in Spanish French, when I'm trying to learn a language.
If I get sort of stressed about which preposition and am I making a mistake, I'll probably avoid starting the conversation in the first place.
We don't want to avoid that.
Oh my gosh, totally.
And we also want to avoid when you think you've made a mistake, what do you do next?
That is the key question that we like to think about.
Do you drop eye contact?
Do you get embarrassed or do you maintain that eye contact?
Do you continue to pursue the connection?
Because honestly, the native speaker in front of you, they get what you're trying to say, right?
Absolutely.
And it's okay, you know?
Exactly, right?
The sentence Fabiana sent that wasn't correct, I wouldn't care at all if you use that.
I would just be excited to talk to you.
Of course, we understand you want to be correct.
I think Fabiana works in the business world and English.
So yes, we're here to help you be correct.
But never forget, it's about connections.
Okay.
Yes.
That's the fine line, right?
We want to teach you these so you understand why for all these grammar rules.
And then, yes, improve your grammar, but don't let it stress you out.
You got it, Aubrey.
Good stuff.
Guys hit, follow here on All Ears English to get the next awesome episode and all the ones moving forward.
Yes.
Awesome.
All right.
Good stuff.
Talk to you soon, Aubrey.
Take care.
See you next time.
Bye.
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