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useful/important... for or to?



 
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ESL Forums | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
keep out v.s. shut out | Name v.s Designation
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useful/important... for or to? Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:19 am  useful/important... for or to?
 

Hi teachers,

I can't decide which one is right.

Useful/important for or useful to?

Thanks a lot for the answer.
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Nicholas
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useful/important... for or to? Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:31 am  useful/important... for or to?
 

'Useful' and 'important' can be followed by either 'to' or 'for', depending on context.

For examples of their use, please see the following links:

useful to
useful for
important to
important for
Conchita
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useful/important... for or to? Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:41 am  useful/important... for or to?
 

As I recollect, "for" in such cases is used before inanimate nouns, and to - the other way around.

It is useful to us,
It is useful for your well-being

To all the people who helped me out - thank you!
For eveytime I reminisce - yo, I miss my past (Eminem)
Lost_Soul
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useful/important... for or to? Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:05 pm  useful/important... for or to?
 

lost_soul wrote:
As I recollect, "for" is usually used before inanimate nouns, and to - the other way around.

I'm afraid that's not correct, Alex -- you must have got mixed up.
Conchita
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useful/important... for or to? Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:15 pm  useful/important... for or to?
 

Hi, Conchita

What I meant is that according to my dictionary we must say "Irrigation is important for farming" and "Winning the contest was very important to her"
I'm not sure though if we can change the prepositions the other way around...
Lost_Soul
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useful/important... for or to? Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:31 pm  useful/important... for or to?
 

Sorry, Alex, I should have specified that, whereas the use of 'for' and 'to' is perfectly correct in your examples, there are many instances where these prepositions are used otherwise.
Conchita
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Location: Madrid, Spain

useful/important... for or to? Wed Nov 28, 2007 14:28 pm  useful/important... for or to?
 

Yeah, my bad. I should have said "in such cases"...
Lost_Soul
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keep out v.s. shut out | Name v.s Designation
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