Blasted foreigners asking questions about English

[NotAllThere]

Just been asked by a colleague:

Is it "the advice you've given is helpful for us" or "the advice you've given is helpful to us"

I think the former is better. helpful for <noun> and helpful to <verb>.

[Francko]

Just been asked by a colleague:

Is it "the advice you've given is helpful for us" or "the advice you've given is helpful to us"

I think the former is better. helpful for <noun> and helpful to <verb>.

I have recently done a test like this and did 70 out of 80. However I am quite sure that most of you would have scored even less (with peaks like Milan who wouldn't guess a single one perhaps).

[NotAllThere]

That's not helpful to... for... oh great. I can't even finish that sentence now, my brain's seized up.

[Francko]

That's not helpful to... for... oh great. I can't even finish that sentence now, my brain's seized up.

Just a wild guess from my latin experience. I would think that "for" would focus on the purpose of being helpful(I.e. "helpful "for" developing the potential") while using "to" might mean you focus on the person/thing you are helping (i.e. helpful "to" his potential).

Just a wild guess....

[EternalOptimist]

Just been asked by a colleague:

Is it "the advice you've given is helpful for us" or "the advice you've given is helpful to us"

I think the former is better. helpful for <noun> and helpful to <verb>.

tell him the correct phrase is

'the advice you've given is helpful with the needful'

[expat]

Just been asked by a colleague:

Is it "the advice you've given is helpful for us" or "the advice you've given is helpful to us"

I think the former is better. helpful for <noun> and helpful to <verb>.

I'm afraid that I don't agree, though actually caring which preposition might be better is almost worth an A* GCSE by itself these days. Certainly your moniker is looking ever less plausible.

Your noun/verb comparison is a sensible way to ask the question (ask the question the right way, and the answer will present itself); but I think you were deceived by the normal usage of "to" to make the infinitive verb. Apart from that infinitive construction, "to" is not specific to verb action.

I can't say that either would be wrong. For a construction to be acceptable it ought to pass 2 tests:
1. any native speaker should understand it immediately.
2. no educated native speaker should have his attention distracted from the meaning by the sudden slap of realisation that the construction is wrong.

To me, both versions would pass those tests. I would unhesitatingly prefer the second, "helpful to us", but I cannot say why. Arguably there may be a difference in emphasis between the two (one accentuating the "helpful" and the other accentuating the "us"), but I wouldn't like to analyse that further.

[NotAllThere]

... Certainly your moniker is looking ever less plausible....

I apologise for my lapses into sanity.

[BrowneIssue]

Is it "the advice you've given is helpful for us" or "the advice you've given is helpful to us"

I think trhe correct answer is:

Stop giving helpful advice to blasted foreigners!

[FSM with Cheddar]

What? Foreigners over here!

This must be stopped. What we need is some kind of robot metal man, programmed to think like a Tory.

I shall call it...

RobotMetalTory

no, there must be a better name....

[NotAllThere]

No - it's foreigners over here. Only they're referred to as "natives".