Difference between LEAVE FOR and LEAVE TO

When you go away from one place and start going to another place, use LEAVE FOR:

• I’m leaving for Beijing tomorrow. (I’m going away from home and go to Beijing.)
• When are you leaving for work? (When are you going away from home and go to work?)
• The plane leaves for London at 10 am. (The plane leaves the airport and starts flying towards London at 10 am.)

 
LEAVE somethig/someone TO somebody means giving somebody the responsibility to take care of something/someone:

• You can leave the cleaning to me, Jeff’s doing the cooking.
• I can’t deal with Mr Jones anymore. I think I’ll just leave him to you.
• I have no time to finish this report. Do you think I can leave it to Tim?

 
Also, use LEAVE something TO somebody when somebody wants another person to have something after his/her death:

• Tom left his house to his daughter.
• He didn’t leave anything to his son.

 
*note: LEAVE TO is not used with places. Use FOR when talking about where somebody is going.

LEAVE may be followed by TO + VERB when saying WHY you are leaving:

• I’m leaving to start a new life.
• We have to leave to get there on time.

 
[adrotate banner=”1″]