Quote:
Originally Posted by peter123  Hi native speakers,
Question 1
What is difference between 'to' and 'for' in the following expressions:
Vital to /for
Good to/ for
Important to/ for
Essential to /for
Question 2
My friend says it is not correct to write:
Dedication is vital for your success.
IT SHOULD BE WRITTEN AS:
Dedication is vital to your success.
Is it true? If yes, can the same principle apply to 'essential', 'important' and 'good'?
peter |
This is a very tough question. To a native speaker some combinations have very subtle difference in meaning but there is no concrete rule that I can find and I have searched the internet for 30 minutes to try to find a good answer to your question.
To answer Question 2 first
Dedication is vital to your success.
Dedication is vital for your success.
I would say that both sentences mean the same thing. I doubt that any native English speaker could explain a difference. I would personally use the second sentence.
Good to/ for
She is good to him.
She is good for him.
There is a difference between these two sentences. Being good to him means she does done something nice for him. Being good for him means that with her in his life he is a better person.
Important to/ for
Eating lots of vegetables is important to your health.
Eating lots of vegetables is important for your health.
It is the same as vital to/for; I don't see any of difference in meaning here. Personally I would use the second sentence though.
Essential to /for
Water is essential for life.
Water is essential to life.
The first sentence sounds a lot better to my native English ear, but the second second sentence is grammatically correct to the best of my knowledge and means basically the same thing.
I hope this has helped you. In English there are many ways to say the same thing.
to and for 
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