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For me or To me

  Tags: Grammar | English
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Honest
Diglot
Groupie
United States
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89 posts - 92 votes 
Speaks: Arabic (Gulf)*, English

 
 Message 1 of 6
15 June 2010 at 5:13pm | IP Logged 
I have two questions regarding English grammar:

1- When I want to say something like, I believe; personally..etc. I wanted to use the phrase: To me.So the question is is it: To me or For me ?

2- What is the proper preposition here:

That will help me to know the answer (to-of) that question.

Thanks a lot!
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Derian
Triglot
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PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 2 of 6
15 June 2010 at 5:26pm | IP Logged 
1 - When talking about your opinion, you use "To me". E.g.:
It doesn't make much sense to me.
To me, it sounds like nonsense.
John likes to make pranks, but to me it seems childish.

2 - That will help me to know the answer TO that question.
an answer TO a question
a solution TO a problem
a way TO do it
the key TO understanding (sth)

Edited by Derian on 15 June 2010 at 5:31pm

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Spanky
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Canada
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 Message 3 of 6
15 June 2010 at 9:06pm | IP Logged 
Derian wrote:
1 - When talking about your opinion, you use "To me". E.g.:
It doesn't make much sense to me.
To me, it sounds like nonsense.
John likes to make pranks, but to me it seems childish.

2 - That will help me to know the answer TO that question.
an answer TO a question
a solution TO a problem
a way TO do it
the key TO understanding (sth)


Agreed.   

Just to confuse the issue, alternate but less common wording for the first issue can also take the following form:   "As for me, I am not afraid of bears." (this works for more than just bears).

As for the second issue, most phrases will be as described above, but there are some phrases where "of" would be more appropriate:   

- an understanding of the situation
- an appreciation of post-modern art
-

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Derian
Triglot
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PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: Polish*, English, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 4 of 6
15 June 2010 at 9:20pm | IP Logged 
Spanky wrote:
(this works for more than just bears)
This made me chuckle. :)
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dmaddock1
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Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 5 of 6
15 June 2010 at 9:41pm | IP Logged 
Spanky wrote:
Derian wrote:

2 - That will help me to know the answer TO that question.
an answer TO a question
a solution TO a problem
a way TO do it
the key TO understanding (sth)


As for the second issue, most phrases will be as described above, but there are some phrases where "of" would be more appropriate:   

- an understanding of the situation
- an appreciation of post-modern art
-


Just to piggyback on what Spanky said, 'to' is typically used when there's a feeling of some kind of direction or movement while 'of' is used when there isn't.

Also, in 'a way TO do it' the TO is used differently than in his other examples. Here, 'to' is part of the infinitive 'to do' rather than part of a prepositional phrase. This is yet another funny use of TO in English.
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Honest
Diglot
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89 posts - 92 votes 
Speaks: Arabic (Gulf)*, English

 
 Message 6 of 6
16 June 2010 at 7:48am | IP Logged 
Thank you all, I appreciate it :)


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