I have a question on a usage of prepositions. I made a sentence like below:
It’s unreasonable for you to make me wait for a hour!
One of my friends talked to me, however, it would be better to use ‘of’ instead of ‘for’. In the ‘school grammar’(the grammar we(Koreans) learned in school), ‘of’ is used in this kind of stuctured sentence when we want to talk about character. For example, ‘It’s very kind of you’ ‘It’s very sweet of you to say so’ etc. She said because the word ‘unreasonable’ is an adjective showing a kind of character, we should use ‘of’ instead of ‘for’.
What do you think? I think the sentence I made is ok as it is. What’s your choice: of or for?
Um… May I ask you why? Hmm. Does ‘unreasonable’ have any features which ‘kind’ ‘sweet’ dont’ have? Are there other adjectives like ‘unreasonable’, which indicate a kind of character, but can be used with both ‘for’ and ‘of’?
Maybe because it’s a different type of sentence?
I think, For you to do this for me is the Subject, but we don’t have ‘it’s’ in the sentence. However I always have problems with such type of sentence.
And, sweetpumpkin, It’s unreasonable for you to make me wait for an hour!
Maybe because it’s a different type of sentence?
I think, For you to do this for me is the Subject, but we don’t have ‘it’s’ in the sentence. However I always have problems with such type of sentence.
Yes, I see what you mean. The “for” in “For you to do this for me,” is like “That you do this for me…”, “Your doing this for me”, and other such expressions.
So, we can also say “It’s unreasonable that you make me wait for a hour!” and "“It’s unreasonable making me wait for a hour!”, and we can we also say “It’s very sweet/kind that you help me…”, so why is "“It’s very sweet/kind for you to help me…” not acceptable?
In my opinion, this is the meaning of the word ‘unreasonable’ in this particular sentence: It’s unreasonable for you to make me wait for an hour!
Though ‘unreasonable’ can characterize a person, it’s seldom used to do it ‘in general’, mostly in particular situations. In this sentence it’s not ‘you’, who was unreasonable, but your single action.
And ‘It’s very sweet/kind for you to help me…’ sounds unnatural to me because it supposes that something good was done for ‘you’, not ‘you’ did this ‘good’. Or it is not common for ‘you’ to do such kind things. Usually you are not so generous.
Sometimes it seems to me that the person who started the thread doesn’t need such long explanation and is not interested in it.
Okay, I got it! I’ve found your explanation very helpful and it made me think again about the character of prepositions and adjectives we’ve talk about. Thank you.
Oh, yes! I’m interested in it and think your thought on the adjective ‘unreasonable’ is very reasonable.
And some students - I myself, for one - are not always happy with this kind of short answer: