what is the difference in to, of and for when they all have a meaning of “belong to sth”?
For instnace, why we have to say “there are two sides to every story” rather than using the other two?
Thank you you for you help. As I am not a native speaker, I find it a bit confusing.
The problem with some of these distinctions is that they are very difficult to remember. The best way to think of the difference between some of these prepositions is that the relationship between them typically depends more on habit or set ways of expression rather than rules that can explain every single case.
That said, when they are talking about things that belong to something else, the things to keep in mind are these:
Most of the time, you should use “of” (such as “This is the book of my family.”). “Of” is used to indicate reference, relation, and number.
- The joy of the journey should be the focus, not the outcome.
- The winter of last year was surprisingly full of good news.
- There are five classes of English happening in the school right now.
“To” is usually to indicate a very direct type of relationship. For example, if I ask a question, the answer to that question would be what I respond. The relationship between the question and answer is very direct and very close.
Another example would be “My laptop is very important to me.”
Something that is important to you, for example, also indicates a direct relationship. If there is anything that I need for work or generally to survive, it includes my laptop.
The word “for” plays also a similar role. However, it focuses usually on reasons or the use of something. For example, see these sentences:
- I wanted to borrow your book for my class but you were not home when I went to ask you about it.
- I went to the store and bought a present for your daughter’s birthday.
- For that reason, I ended up moving to China.
Note that in each of these examples, the word “for” could be replaced by either “because of” or “to use in” or “to use for”.
For specific cases, it sometimes boils down to habit and convention. There are certain phrases that require certain prepositions, and these are phrases that you should learn together, not as separate words.
