“Prepare for” or “prepare to”?

She spent three hours preparing to the court hearing. · She spent three hours preparing for the court hearing. · We will need some time to prepare ... CommonMistakesinBusinessEnglish activewritingguidefornon-nativespeakers Skiptocontent ←The“familyis”orthe“family are”? Thedifferencebetweencountableanduncountablenouns(unitandmass nouns)→ “Preparefor”or“prepare to”? PostedonApril4,2017bybarnabyharward WRONG Shespentthreehourspreparingtothecourthearing. RIGHT Shespentthreehourspreparingforthecourthearing. Thisisaverycommonmistake.But“prepare”isnotalwaysfollowedby“for”.Sometimes“to”iscorrect. Theruleisasfollows: Preparefor+noun(where“for”isapreposition) Prepareto+verb(where“to”isaninfinitivemarker) Examples: Preparefor+noun Wewillneedsometimetoprepareforthemeeting. Heclearlyhadnotpreparedfortheinterview–hecouldn’tgivedecentanswerstoeventhemostbasicquestions. MysonishavingextraMathslessonstopreparefortheexam. Youcanalsopreparesomebodyforsomething,e.g.Haveyoupreparedyourwitnessforthehearing? Prepareto+verb Theinstructoropenedtheaeroplanedoorandgavemyparachuteonefinalcheck.“Preparetojump”,hesaid. There’sgoingtobeafiredrillintenminutes.Preparetoevacuatethebuilding. Theaboveexampleshavealiteralmeaning–“prepare”means“prepare”.Butveryoften“prepareto+verb”hastheidiomaticmeaning“tobewillingtodosomething”,asinthefollowingexamples: Hesaidhewaspreparedtolistentoallopinions,buthedidn’tcareaboutwhatIhadtosay. Iampreparedtodoanythingtohelpthatiswithinthelaw.ButI’mnotpreparedtodoanythingillegal. Wearenotpreparedtopayanyfurtherexpenses.   Sharethis:FacebookLinkedInLikethis:LikeLoading... Related ThisentrywaspostedinUncategorizedandtaggedIdioms,Prepositions,Verbs.Bookmarkthepermalink. ←The“familyis”orthe“family are”? Thedifferencebetweencountableanduncountablenouns(unitandmass nouns)→ LeaveaReplyCancelreply Enteryourcommenthere... Fillinyourdetailsbeloworclickanicontologin: Email(required)(Addressnevermadepublic) Name(required) Website YouarecommentingusingyourWordPress.comaccount. ( Log Out /  Change ) YouarecommentingusingyourTwitteraccount. ( Log Out /  Change ) YouarecommentingusingyourFacebookaccount. ( Log Out /  Change ) Cancel Connectingto%s Notifymeofnewcommentsviaemail.Notifymeofnewpostsviaemail. Δ Searchfor: abbreviations Adjectives Adverbs Articles British/USEnglish bulletpoints Clearandconcisewriting Commas Compoundnouns Conditionals Conjunctions Countableanduncountablenouns Gerunds Idioms Modalverbs Negation Noungroups nounphrases Nouns Numbers Participleclauses Passivevoice Phrasalverbs politeexpressions Possession Prepositions Punctuation Quantifiers Relativeclauses Singularorplural Timeexpressions Usefuleverydayphrases verbphrases Verbs Verbtenses Weightsandmeasures Wordorder writinglists RecentPosts Whatisparallelstructureandwhydoesit matter? Thedifferencebetween“born”and “borne” “Decideto”,“decideon”and“makea decision” “Tolie”and“to lay” Howtousethephrase“anumber of…” Links BBCEnglish DavidCrystal Englishlanguageandusage EULETA GrammarGirl Grammarphobia Multilinguals PerfectEnglishGrammar RealGrammar TerminologyofCivilLaw CommonMistakesinBusinessEnglish BlogatWordPress.com. Follow Following CommonMistakesinBusinessEnglish Join253otherfollowers Signmeup AlreadyhaveaWordPress.comaccount?Loginnow. CommonMistakesinBusinessEnglish Customize Follow Following Signup Login Copyshortlink Reportthiscontent ViewpostinReader Managesubscriptions Collapsethisbar %dbloggerslikethis: