"to" or "for"

When you use "give" in S+V+O eg: I gave a paper plane to the boy.
And you use the preposition "to".
When you use "buy" eg: She bought a skateboard for her son.
And you use the preposition "for".

Do you have any rules to choose "to" or "for" according to verbs?
I checked my grammar book, and it says that there are two types of verbs
like "buy" and "give".
But it is so hard to find which word is in the group of "buy" or "give".

And the grammar book says:
Please bring that chair to me. ( You might not sit on the chair, it might
be for another person.)
Please bring that chair for me. ( You would like to sit on that chair, so
asked to bring.)
Is that right?
Do you have other examples like these sentences?

[Tdol]

Bring that chair to me = transport it to a location
Bring that chair for me = do the work instead of me

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by tdol

Bring that chair to me = transport it to a location
Bring that chair for me = do the work instead of me

One could also read "for me" as "for my use".

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by agnes

When you use "give" in S+V+O eg: I gave a paper plane to the boy.
And you use the preposition "to".
When you use "buy" eg: She bought a skateboard for her son.
And you use the preposition "for".

Do you have any rules to choose "to" or "for" according to verbs?
I checked my grammar book, and it says that there are two types of verbs
like "buy" and "give".
But it is so hard to find which word is in the group of "buy" or "give".

And the grammar book says:
Please bring that chair to me. ( You might not sit on the chair, it might
be for another person.)
Please bring that chair for me. ( You would like to sit on that chair, so
asked to bring.)
Is that right?
Do you have other examples like these sentences?

One must know the meanings and uses of the different prepositions. As TDOL said, in these sentences "gave to" means transferred possession to another person and "bring to" means to transfer an object form one position to another poisition.

"Buy for" means to purchase something for the benefit of another.
"Bring for" means "bring for my benefit", either so I don't have to do it or so I can use it. :wink:

Thank you for your answers.
I just tried to memorize which verb has "to" or "for" without thinking about the meaning.
How do you, native speakers, learn prepositions? Especially when you were young at school?
It's sometimes hard to choose right ones when I speak.

[Tdol]

We absorb them when growing up, so it's easy for us. I can see it from your angle, though; I'm beginning to learn Japanese and it is a hard slog where every word bears no resemblance to anything I know, unlike European languages, and the grammar is so different.

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by norikoagnes

Thank you for your answers.
I just tried to memorize which verb has "to" or "for" without thinking about the meaning.
How do you, native speakers, learn prepositions? Especially when you were young at school?
It's sometimes hard to choose right ones when I speak.

I think we learn preposition choice by listening to others. It is far easier as a native speaker.

Originally Posted by agnes

When you use "give" in S+V+O eg: I gave a paper plane to the boy.
And you use the preposition "to".
When you use "buy" eg: She bought a skateboard for her son.
And you use the preposition "for".

Do you have any rules to choose "to" or "for" according to verbs?
I checked my grammar book, and it says that there are two types of verbs
like "buy" and "give".
But it is so hard to find which word is in the group of "buy" or "give".

And the grammar book says:
Please bring that chair to me. ( You might not sit on the chair, it might
be for another person.)
Please bring that chair for me. ( You would like to sit on that chair, so
asked to bring.)
Is that right?
Do you have other examples like these sentences?

You can change the whole structure S+V+O of the sentence and say that you placed the paper plane into their hands but that doesn't sound as natural

Thank you for your reply. Learning other languages is sometimes hard, but worth to do it!! :wink: