Hi, what exactly is the difference between these two phrases:
This guide provides you all of the information you need.
This guide provides you with all of the information you need.
Thanks in advance,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a professor and a student discussing a possibility[YSaerTTEW443543]
Hi Torsten
I’d only leave out the word with if I also omitted you:
This guide provides all of the information you need.
Amy
Hi Amy, that’s what I thought too but on Jake Peeble’s ESL School Finder page I came across this sentence:
This 776 page guide lists ESL schools around the world and provides you all of the information you need including:
Maybe, he simply forgot to insert the preposition with after you?[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEFL listening discussions: How long has the young man been drinking alcohol?[YSaerTTEW443543]
Hi Torsten
It may be mainly a question of preference. I personally would always write “provide you with” and I think that’s also the most common usage.
But I’m pretty sure I’ve also seen it without with.
Amy
[color=red]
No, I do not think so!
Believe me Torsten, had you not asked this question I would have! 
Well, you beat me to it.
I have always learnt and seen it in the examples given in dictionaries that provide is used with with.
1- Could you please provide me with the details?
Yet, in Sidney Sheldon’s novels (two of them) I sawthe use of Provide without with, and it was not a TYPO because I checked another copy of the same novel by Harpercollins also. So, is this with optional?
Please shed some light on it!
Tom
It’s definitely not optional at my house. :lol:
Amy
Dear Amy
Once I did small research on this use of ‘Provide’ (with and without with), and consulted at least, far be it from me to exaggerate, 14 or 15 dictionaries. None of them showed the use of provide without with.During my research, I also came to know that the following words must also be used with with.
1- Supply Tom with regular answers.
2- Present Tom with a good English grammar book.
3- Serve Tom with a piece of cake and tea.
4- Supply Tom with all he wants.
5- Furnish Town with plenty of gossip.
6- Accomodate Tom with a loan (God forbid!)
So, according to the statistics it is more of a rule than a matter of opinion. Amy, what do you think about the six words I have given in my examples. Should I swear by them or they could also be used without with? I do not want to be too bookish!
Waiting
Tom
Hi Tom
I would not use with in your 3rd example! Instead, I’d “serve Tom a piece of cake.”
However, I would use with when ‘serve’ has different meanings:
Using with is good in your other examples.
Amy
Just to add another thought on this topic, there also is the combination to provide for which can have several meanings too.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a student and an HR interviewer[YSaerTTEW443543]
Thank you, Amy
…but my Longman Dictionary writes in the entry of serve:
‘Serve someone (guest etc) [color=orange]with something’
Would you say that it is again being too bookish and practical English is a bit further from it? Or again this with is optional?
Tom
Hi Tom
This is either a case of AmE vs BE
In your “cake” sentence, a possible use of the word with wouldn’t even fleetingly cross my mind.
Amy
Good idea! 
Where is Sir Alan? :roll: We need British version here!
Tom
If Alan also says this with is not a good use even in BE English, I am going to burn my dic: They have already made me too bookish!
Tom
Hi Tom,
Please don’t burn your dictionary on my behalf. Remember that dictionaries worth their salt are descriptive and not prescriptive and no doubt some arcane book of duties for a waiter in some grand household might suggest that the waiter should serve the guests with coffee. But to me this is open to ridicule because with suggests in the manner of so that to me it would be: A waiter serves coffee with care. To answer your point specifically I would simply say: Serve someone coffee indicating that you are serving coffee to them.
Alan
PS Thanks for the temporary knighthood!
Hi everybody,
Please, forgive me for rising such an old thread; I would like to add some Russian thought into this matter.
Try to think of it as if this guide now gives you all of the information or this guide will provide you with all of the information.
I.e., while you are reading this guide, it gives you some information, or when you will read this guide, it will provide the information to you.
Of course it might be wrong, for I am no expert.
It’s for future visitors…