Prepositions

“I would like for them to …”

Common English Blunders, Hypercorrection, Prepositions

My wife heard this on NPR this morning.

Problem:
The preposition “for” is inappropriate here.

Explanation:
Inserting prepositions where they don’t belong is becoming, unfortunately, a common English blunder.

The preposition “for” does not belong in the opening of the sentence that my wife heard.

“I would like” is a weaker way of saying “I want”.

Replacing “would like” with the stronger “want” gives us “I want for them to …”, where “for” certainly does not belong.

This confirms that “for” does not belong in “I would like for them to …”.

My suspicion is that the speaker believed that including “for” made him or her seem more educated — perhaps a form of hypercorrection.

Solution:
“I would like them to …”

“He did not try to sell me on an expensive system.”

Common English Blunders, Prepositions

I heard this during a radio ad yesterday.

Problem:
The preposition “on” does not belong in this sentence.

Explanation:
The speaker was describing the sales technique of the company running the radio advertisement.

She could have been trying to simplify a longer sentence such as “He did not try to sell me on the idea of an expensive system.”.

Instead of simplifying it by removing “the idea of”, she made it more difficult to understand.

Or she could have been trying to sound more sophisticated by inserting “on” in a sentence that originally did not include it.

Instead, she made it more difficult to understand.

Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly common to hear the preposition “on” inserted mistakenly but immediately or soon after verbs.

Solution:
“He did not try to sell me an expensive system.”

“They created me a business-objects ID.”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Prepositions

I heard this during a conference call.

Problem:
The preposition “for” is missing from this sentence.

Explanation:
This statement looks as odd as it sounded.

I believe that one source of the problem is that the speaker put herself first in the statement. If she had moved herself to the end of the sentence, then she would have gotten “They created a business-objects ID me.” — clearly wrong!

It’s clear that what is missing in the re-statement is the preposition “for”. In other words, “They created a business-objects ID for me.” is one of the solutions to the problem.

I believe that the absence of “for” in the statement also supports my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to say “created me” than to say “created for me”.

Putting the reference to the speaker first while retaining the needed preposition “for” gives us the other solution to the problem.

Solutions:
“They created a business-objects ID for me.”
or
“They created for me a business-objects ID.”