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Originally Posted by sanny And how can you explain:
1. A shovel is helpful for digging up treasure.
or this sentence
2. A shovel is helpful to dig up a treasure.
sound both very logical. |
I have thought about this some more. The difference in usage seems to be that "helpful to" is used before a person, people, or other agents, whereas "helpful for" is used before conditions, processes, activities, etc. Check some of the contrasting uses here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search