0

Normally, people say "I'm attracted to her", "She is attractive to me" to convey that "she is an attractive person". Not that the two words are all that closely related, but attractive seems to be used with the word 'to' often.

But, it arose to me that when there is an attractive option its usually for someone. For instance, "Cultural relativism is an attractive option for people in a time when tolerance is dominant." But when you change the word into to, it sounds awkward. "...is an attractive option to people". Is there something wrong with this or is it just me?

Improve this question
1
  • English-speaking people also say This is a/the good/bad/only/etc. option for people who... – what does that tell you about attractive in that sentence? Note that in I'm attracted to her and She's attractive to me, to is employed with different meanings, which in turn means it's a coincidence in that case.
    – user3395
    Commented Jul 7, 2018 at 12:17

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Normally, people do not say, 'She is attractive to me', they just say, 'She is attractive', or they use the other option that you used, 'I'm attracted to her.'

Were I recasting your sentence regarding cultural relativism, I would say either:

In a time when tolerance is dominant, people are attracted to cultural relativism (as an option).

or

In a time when tolerance is dominant, people find cultural relativism to be an attractive option.

Note: I would probably omit the words in brackets in the first sentence.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .