useful/important... for or to?

[Nicholas]

Hi teachers,

I can't decide which one is right.

Useful/important for or useful to?

Thanks a lot for the answer.
_________________
Nicholas

[Conchita]

'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

[Lost_Soul]

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)

[Conchita]

[Lost_Soul]

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...

[Conchita]

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.

[Lost_Soul]

Yeah, my bad. I should have said "in such cases"...