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Do you say you feel pride 'for' something or you feel pride 'in' something? 'For' feels right to me, but 'in' seems to make more sense.

There are two statements where I need it. One is 'pride __ country' and the other is 'pride __ army'

I want to talk about pride as a feeling; as a noun. For example "Nationalism is excessive pride of/in one's country'. I don't want to say "Nationalism is feeling excessively proud of one's country" or "Nationalism is taking excessive pride in one's country" as those unnecessarily complicate the sentence. Just to clarify, is the sentence "The parade instilled in them a pride in their country" wrong?

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  • maybe you want to use to be proud of?
    – drM.
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:10
  • @drm. I want to use it as a noun though. I have a list of nouns, so it would be weird to say in the middle of them 'proud of ___'.
    – N A
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:16
  • I don't have personal experience with it, but here says that you could say take pride in, while pride as a noun is just pride
    – drM.
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:22
  • It would be helpful if you gave an example of the sentence you would like to use "feel pride for" in. If you mean to say "I feel pride" you might say "I am proud", like "I am proud of my skill".
    – ColleenV
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:25
  • There are actually two sentences (Or rather, statements) where I need it. One is 'pride __ country' and the other is 'pride __ army'.
    – N A
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:28

2 Answers 2

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Neither of OP's suggestions is "standard" English. You normally either take pride in something or you feel / are proud of [it, him, them, etc.].

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But note that idiomatically there's a difference between...

1: He is proud of his work
2: He takes pride in his work

...where #1 means he feels his sense of self-worth is enhanced by the work that he has produced (because it's of a high quality; he expects others to recognize this, and thus admire him for having produced it).

But #2 normally means he takes great care in his work, with the implication that he himself wants to be "satisfied" with the results. There's usually no particular implication that he wants or expects anyone else to admire it.

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  • Those uses are both verbal (I don't know if that's the word, but I mean they describe an action) though. I want to talk about pride as a feeling; as a noun. For example "Nationalism is excessive pride of/in one's country'. I don't want to say "Nationalism is feeling excessively proud of one's country" or "Nationalism is taking excessive pride in one's country" as those unnecessarily complicate the sentence. Just to clarify, is the sentence "The parade instilled in them a pride in their country" wrong? @fumblefingers
    – N A
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:45
  • @N A: I suppose you could define nationalism as "taking excessive pride in one's country", but personally I'd avoid any variant of pride/proud in that context, since it's normal for most Anglophones (particularly Americans) to strongly endorse patriotism (having/taking pride in one's country) whilst decrying nationalism (an extreme form of patriotism marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries.)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:53
  • I was just using that as an example. I made it up on the spot. Okay, so let's look at patriotism instead. Saying 'Patriotism is taking pride in one's country' implies that patriotism is something you do, doesn't it? Patriotism is not an action, but a feeling. @FumbleFingers
    – N A
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 14:58
  • You're quite right. That's why I personally would always write The parade instilled in them a sense of pride in their country. But this isn't really about vocabulary or syntax as such - we're at the level of "writing advice" here.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 15:05
  • 'Sense of pride in' definitely sounds a lot better to me. I think that's what I was missing :) Thanks!
    – N A
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 15:08
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Slightly different meanings depending on how you word this phrase:

I am proud of him - I feel proud because I helped him achieve something

I have pride in him - I am proud that I am associatied with him

I am proud for him - I feel empathetic pride because of his solo achievement

You dont feel pride "for" something unless that thing is capable of feeling pride itself and you are emulating that feeling due to empathy.

If you do something for "person", you are serving the persons benefit. If you do something for "object" you are attempting to obtain the object.

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