Welcome to my channel!

Notice that I said "Welcome to my channel"?

Not "Welcome for my channel"

You're probably here for learning English, right?

To learn English, right?

Man, those little words 'to' and 'for', they're so tiny

but when they're used as prepositions in English

sentences, grammar can get quite confusing!

Can't it?

I'm sure that you've been confused by these words

at some point.

So in this lesson,

I'll go over them in a little detail

so that you can feel more confident using them

while you write, while you speak in English.

Prepositions in general are pretty easy to confuse.

For some of you, part of the problem is that

with these prepositions, you're thinking about

the way that you use them in your own language

not how they're used in English and it can be different.

For example,

Spanish and Portuguese speakers often use

the preposition 'en'

where in English we use both 'on' and 'in'.

Two separate words with very different uses in English.

So part of the challenge when you're learning is

understanding how to use them separately in English

and what the difference is, when to use one or the other.

Some languages don't really rely on prepositions

much at all. I mean sometimes English prepositions

don't have a lot of logic to them. They don't always

make sense. And for all of these reasons,

English prepositions must be learned and practised

in context with other words.

So we won't focus too much on each individual

preposition in this lesson.

We'll look at words that they're often used with.

And just before we get started, you might be interested

in some of the other lessons that I've made

about prepositions. My playlist's up there.

I've made lessons about in, on, at, by.

Lots of other prepositions.

But back to these two prepositions

we're talking about today.

Sometimes, using the wrong preposition doesn't affect

the meaning of your sentence too much.

Native speakers will recognise the mistake,

but they probably won't correct you on it because

they'll still understand you.

But with these two prepositions, they can often be used

in place of each other and sometimes,

the meaning completely changes.

So here's what I'm going to do in this lesson.

I'm going to talk about the uses of 'to'.

I'm going to talk about the uses of 'for'.

And then I'm going to talk about the times

when you could use either 'to' or 'for'.

And that's where things get a little confusing!

Make sure you stick around until the end of the lesson

because later on, I'm going to teach you some common

word collocations using 'to' and 'for'

so you can stop guessing which one you need to use

and just know which is the right one.

And before we get started, make sure you subscribe

to the channel just by clicking that red button

down there so that you can keep up-to-date

with what's happening.

Okay, let's start!

When should you use the preposition 'to'?

So, you can use 'to' when there is some kind of

movement from one place to another.

Now keep in mind, this doesn't only relate to

physical movement and action.

It could also relate to other types of movement.

We can use 'to' when there's some kind of transfer

happening or something is being moved

from one place to another - a destination.

Something is being moved to somewhere or something.

Right?

So there's movement, of course,

in the direction to work. The destination is work.

Now I'm going to give you a few other examples

and I want you to pay attention to the destination

or the direction being described in each one.

Now if you're talking about distance,

you should also use 'to',

since distance is the length or the time

from one place to another - to a destination.

Now we also use 'to' when we're talking about

time and the amount of time between two points in time

Of course, we use it when telling the time, right?

When we're talking about one point in time

to another point in time, we can also use 'to'

From this time to that time.

So this is a period from this time to that time.

That's the direction, that's the movement.

Now if there are two things and you'd like

one of those things a little more than the other,

you prefer it, right?

You prefer one thing to the other.

I like chocolate ice cream more than vanilla.

It's way better obviously!

And I would rather have chocolate ice cream.

Not me! I love coffee!

Okay, what about you now? I want you to

tell me about some of your preferences

in the comments below.

So make sure you're comparing two things

and that you're using the preposition 'to'.

I prefer summer to winter, for example.

Add it to the comments.

Now, we can also use 'to' to talk about the point

where something finishes or ends.

It's the limit that you can't go past.

So in this situation, talking about limits,

you may also hear the phrasal verb 'up to'

The water came up to my knees.

during the high season.

Okay I want to check you've been paying attention.

Okay? Time for a quick quiz.

What are the four different situations where

we commonly see the preposition 'to' being used?

The four situations that I just talked about.

Write them in the comments.

Quickly! You've got ten seconds!

Direction or destination.

Time.

The time between two points.

Preference.

And the limit or the endpoint of something.

Right?

Nice!

Let's check out what 'for' is used for now.

So we can talk about benefits using 'for'.

The positive effects or results of something.

So we can use 'for'.

For example, one of the benefits of eating ginger

is that it helps your immune system.

So..

Right? That's a benefit.

We also use 'for' to talk about time.

We use it when we're doing something over a

period of time.

So when something has happened for a number of

hours, days, weeks, months, years..

you get the idea, right?

We do something for a duration,

a period of time.

Wait a second.

Notice how all of those examples are using

the perfect tense?

'For' is often used when talking about time in this way.

You can actually check the lesson that I made about

the present perfect tense and using 'for' and 'since'

right here.

I'll link to it at the end of this lesson as well

so you can keep watching this one now.

If you do something to help someone out

or do something nice,

then you are doing something for them.

You'll see from these examples that

this is an important one to know

so that you can ask someone for a favour.

"Can you please do something for me?"

This is a helpful phrase, right? A helpful one to know.

It's a really common expression.

Can you help me? Can you do something for me?

What's this thing's purpose?

What's its function?

What's it used for?

Well it's used for drinking and filling up with water.

Remember that we use 'for' when we're talking about

a function or a use.

We use the form 'for' plus verb -ing

It's used for drinking.

It's used for taking.