"for dinner" or "to dinner"

[edmondjanet]

I have invited him for dinner. or
I have invited him to dinner.
Thank you.

[freezeframe]

I have invited him for dinner. or
I have invited him to dinner.
Thank you.

Both are possible.

[TheParser]

I have invited him for dinner. or
I have invited him to dinner.
Thank you.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I have just found something on the Web that has taught me a lot.

(2) We loyal fans of usingenglish.com try our best not to unnecessarily

advertise other helplines, but I wish to make it clear I was not smart

enough to think of the following. All credit goes to a website run by a

man named D.

(3) He invited me for dinner.

D. suggests that you NOT use this. He says that it is ambiguous.

That is, dinner where? At a restaurant or at your home?

(4) If it's a restaurant, he suggests:

He invited me out to dinner,

He invited me to dinner.

(5) If it's one's home, he suggests:

He invited me over for dinner.

He invited me to dinner.

[TheParser]

If you read my first post before I edited it, please be advised that D. actually said:

"He invited me over FOR dinner." I had used the wrong preposition in my first post,

and edited it as soon as I had discovered the mistake. Even we non-teachers

seek to maintain the highest standards of accuracy and integrity in making comments.

[Mr_Ben]

Don't forget the perilously ambiguous sentence, "We had our neighbours for dinner last night"!

edmondjanet, in case you don't understand, this sentence can mean that we invited the neighbours to have dinner but also that we are cannibals and actually ate our neighbours. A certain amount of ambiguity exists, but there is always enough context for someone to understand what you mean (or they can always ask you to explain it better).

As freezeframe said, both prepositions are possible and correct so you should use whichever one sounds better to you.

[freezeframe]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I have just found something on the Web that has taught me a lot.

(2) We loyal fans of usingenglish.com try our best not to unnecessarily

advertise other helplines, but I wish to make it clear I was not smart

enough to think of the following. All credit goes to a website run by a

man named D.

(3) He invited me for dinner.

D. suggests that you NOT use this. He says that it is ambiguous.

That is, dinner where? At a restaurant or at your home?

(4) If it's a restaurant, he suggests:

He invited me out to dinner,

He invited me to dinner.

(5) If it's one's home, he suggests:

He invited me over for dinner.

He invited me to dinner.

I don't know D. and I'm sure he's a lovely human being.

But,

ambiguity is a concern only if we need to get specific information across. If it doesn't matter where this dinner is taking place, then what's the difference? Also, D. suggests to use "He invited me to dinner" in BOTH cases. What happened to ambiguity? In short, I fail to see the logic.