[Grammar] capacity of/for

[inescuen]

One of my students is English, and she accepts the use of the preposition "for" in the sentence "the room has capacity for 60 people".. I thought the only right way to talk about contents with the word "capacity" was: "the room has a capacity of 60 people". She also accepts the preposition "for" in the question "How many people does the room have capacity for? ... I would suggest other type of questions such as "how many people can it take?... , not so directly translated from Spanish... or in any case, how many people does the room have a capacity of? (This doesn't sound natural to me either)... I would appreciate if someone can tell me if both prepositions are correct, and if they are not, explain the diffference to me. Thank you in advance.

 

[xpert]

Both refer to the amount of space a container, room etc has to hold things or people.
Therefore, both are correct. :tick:

The fuel tank has a capacity of 40 litres.
The room had seating capacity for about 80.

Notice that "capacity for" refers also to someone's ability to do something.
a child's capacity for learning
an infinite capacity for love

 

[bhaisahab]

I would prefer "a capacity of" when talking about volume. In the case of your question about the number of people that can fit in a room, I would use: "the room has space/seating for X persons".