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Prepositions in English display a powerful diversity of uses.\u00a0 In previous preposition article, we talked about the proposition \"of\".\u00a0 Here, we will look, at the preposition \"for.\"<\/p>\nPrepositions in English display a powerful diversity of uses.\u00a0 In previous preposition article, we talked about the proposition \"of\".\u00a0 Here, we will look, at the preposition \"for.\"<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The word \"for\" is a preposition.\u00a0 This means, it must be followed by a noun --- or by something playing the role of a noun.\u00a0\u00a0 This latter category includes\u00a0gerunds<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0substantive clauses<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0Someone who doesn't understand baseball well is likely to mistake running as part of\u00a0<\/em>a hit-and-run play<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0stealing a base<\/em>.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0The teachers chaperoning the dance are not responsible\u00a0for\u00a0whatever may happen on the way home afterwards.<\/em><\/p>\n In sentence #1, the object of the preposition \u201cfor\u201d is a gerund phrase, and in sentence #2, the object is a substantive clause.\u00a0\u00a0 Incidentally, both of these are exemplary of idioms involving the word \u201cfor.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n First of all, the word \"for\" can be used in an indirect object construction, and so one can \"do a favor for someone<\/em>\", \"say a prayer for someone<\/em>\", \"bake a cake for someone<\/em>\", etc.\u00a0\u00a0 This construction tends to arise in either narrative or in informal day-to-day conversation, so it is unlikely to appear in the academic and professional passages on the GMAT. \u00a0Nevertheless, this structure gives a hint to some of the core meanings of its uses.\u00a0 If one is \"for a cause\", then one supports that cause and is in favor of it.\u00a0\u00a0 Many of the uses of \"for\" carry this supporting or favorable connotation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two verbs with idioms that require a \"for\" prepositional phrase are<\/p>\n argue for<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n allow for<\/strong><\/p>\n The structure\u00a0argue for<\/strong>\u00a0is very much in line with the \"for a cause\" idiom mentioned above.\u00a0\u00a0 If I argue for X, that X is some position or perspective or opinion or point-of-view that I support.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0The senator argued for naming the new veteran's hospital in his state after\u00a0<\/em>Omar Bradley<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n The opposite idiom --- if one person\u00a0argues\u00a0for\u00a0X<\/strong>, then his opponent may\u00a0argue\u00a0against\u00a0X<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 The prepositions \"for\" & \"against\" form a natural pair of opposites.<\/p>\n The structure\u00a0allow for<\/strong>\u00a0is far more complicated and subtle.\u00a0\u00a0 One use is the structure\u00a0P allows for Q<\/strong>, where P is a law or set of rules and Q is some activity or specific case consistent with these rules.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>First Amendment<\/em><\/a>\u00a0allows for free speech, even speech critical of the government<\/em>.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Heisenberg Uncertainty Relation<\/em><\/a>\u00a0allows for momentary violations of fundamental laws of Physics, such as Conservation of Energy<\/em>.<\/p>\n A second use is\u00a0to allow X for Y<\/strong>, where X is some resource (time, money, room, etc.) needed to accommodate Y.<\/p>\n 6)\u00a0The county budget does not allow any additional funds for unemployment services.<\/em><\/p>\n 7)\u00a0After beginning construction, the developer discovered that the state's water allocation system would not allow sufficient drinking water for his planned housing development<\/em>.<\/p>\n 8)\u00a0Baseball's unique structure allows essentially unlimited time for the resolution of events at the end of a game<\/em>.<\/p>\n A more abstract use of this idiom\u00a0to allow for J<\/strong>\u00a0has the meaning: to acknowledge extenuating conditions, to give consideration to contingencies.\u00a0\u00a0 In this construction, J is the quality or characteristic that would excuse or provide mitigating conditions for someone.<\/p>\n 9)\u00a0Allowing for the young person's rash judgment, the police decided to drop all charges<\/em>.<\/p>\n 10)\u00a0The career numbers\u00a0<\/em>Ted Williams<\/em><\/a>\u00a0produced are even more extraordinary when we allow for his two long stints in the armed services during his prime<\/em>.<\/p>\n Three further verbs form a set of related idioms involving \"for\"<\/p>\n substitute A for B<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n mistake A for B<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n sacrifice A for B<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n In all three, A is someone or something that \"takes the place\" of B.\u00a0\u00a0 When we say we are going to\u00a0substitute A for B<\/strong>, we are saying that, in some context, we will replace B with A.\u00a0 This is precisely how we use the terminology in math: \"substitute (2x + 7) for y.\"\u00a0 We use it with the very same meaning in any one of a number of other contexts:<\/p>\n 11)\u00a0On the World Series roster, the manager substituted a rookie for the injured veteran<\/em>.<\/p>\n 12)\u00a0She substitutes maple syrup for cane sugar in her muffin recipes<\/em>.<\/p>\n 13)\u00a0Critics of the Soviet Union argued that the\u00a0<\/em>Bolsheviks<\/em><\/a>\u00a0merely substituted one oppressive despotic system for another<\/em>.<\/p>\n Notice, incidentally --- when we\u00a0substitute A for B<\/strong>, B is gone and A is part of the final product, but when we\u00a0replace A with B<\/strong>, A is gone and B is part of the final product.<\/p>\n The idiom\u00a0to mistake A for B<\/strong>\u00a0is like a \"substitution\" that happens entirely in one person's head.\u00a0\u00a0 If I mistake A for B, then A is the real person or situation at hand, and through my mistake, I don't recognize A --- for whatever reason, I instead am under the mistaken impression that B is at hand, rather than A.<\/p>\n 14)\u00a0The students, seeing an image of\u00a0<\/em>Henry David Thoreau<\/em><\/a>, mistook him for\u00a0<\/em>Lincoln<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n 15)\u00a0The inexperienced investors mistook a\u00a0<\/em>short-covering rally<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for a major upturn in the market<\/em>.<\/p>\n The idiom\u00a0to<\/strong>\u00a0sacrifice A for B<\/strong>\u00a0also is like a kind of substitution.\u00a0 In this idiom, A is the resource or asset that one gives up, with the specific intention of attaining B, some desired condition or result.<\/p>\n 16)\u00a0The executive was not willing to sacrifice his integrity for the lucrative deal.<\/em><\/p>\n 17)\u00a0In the hindsight of history,\u00a0<\/em>Neville Chamberlain<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is seen as having sacrificed the Sudetenland for what he naively thought would be \"peace for our times.\"<\/em><\/p>\n 18)\u00a0The think tank's paper argued that the\u00a0<\/em>federal debt<\/em><\/a>, in effect, sacrifices the prosperity of future generations for our own unbridled consumption<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This idiom is an example of the same root word taking the same preposition in different forms.\u00a0 Both the noun responsibility and the adjective responsible take the preposition \"for\"<\/p>\n responsibility for<\/strong><\/p>\n responsible for<\/strong><\/p>\n In both cases, the agent who \"is responsible\" or who \"has responsibility\" is the person\/thing on whom events depend, and the object of the preposition \"for\" is the process or event\u00a0 or person or thing that the subject controls or influences.<\/p>\n 19)\u00a0The President is ultimately responsible for the actions of the entire\u00a0<\/em>Executive Branch<\/em><\/a>\u00a0of the government<\/em>.<\/p>\n 20)\u00a0While the Moon's gravitation is responsible for the overall cycle of the\u00a0<\/em>tides<\/em><\/a>, the Sun's gravitation is responsible for the difference between spring tides and neap tides<\/em>.<\/p>\n 21)\u00a0Patients' rights groups complained that the proposed medical malpractice reform essentially would absolve doctors of any responsibility for their professional decisions<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This idiom is unique.\u00a0 In a way, this is a grammatical idiom that derives from formal logic.\u00a0\u00a0 When we say\u00a0For every A, B<\/strong>, we are saying that A is some category with multiple members, and for some reason (legal or mathematical or scientific or \u2026), we know that for each member in this category, B is true.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes it is used to express ratios in a population (\"For every 3 people who do X, 7 people do Y.\")<\/p>\n 22)\u00a0For every high school baseball player who eventually rises to a career in the\u00a0<\/em>Major League<\/em><\/a>, more than 360 other high school baseball players never go so far.<\/em><\/p>\n 23)\u00a0Because of the dominance of matter over\u00a0<\/em>antimatter<\/em><\/a>, at least in our Solar System, some theoretical physicists doubt that there truly is a\u00a0<\/em>positron<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for every electron<\/em>.<\/p>\n 24)\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic<\/em><\/a>\u00a0states that for every natural number, the number's\u00a0<\/em>prime factorization<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is unique<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Know the idioms given in bold in this post.\u00a0 As always with idioms, read, read,\u00a0read<\/a>!\u00a0\u00a0 Search for the idioms in this post in context.\u00a0 You understand English best when you understand it in context.<\/p>\n This post was written by Mike McGarry, GMAT expert at Magoosh<\/a>, and originally posted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prepositions in English display a powerful diversity of uses.\u00a0 In previous preposition article, we talked about the proposition “of”.\u00a0 Here, we will look, at the preposition “for.” The preposition…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,783,243,719,735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-magoosh-blog","category-blog","category-sentence-correction-gmat","category-verbal-gmat-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16468,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16466\/revisions\/16468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fundamental uses of \"for\"<\/h2>\n
Verbs requiring \"for\"<\/h2>\n
Responsibility<\/h2>\n
For every A, B<\/h2>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n