Ann made (for) him a cup of tea.
He drank the tea Ann had made (for) him.
Are both sentences correct, with or without "for? If yes, is there any difference in register?
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2 Answers
On the first part
Ann made him a cup of tea.
would be correct while
Ann made for him a cup of tea.
is incorrect, for is used after an action and not when describing the action itself.
On the second part of
He drank the tea Ann made for him.
would be correct with or without "for"
He drank the tea Ann made him.
is as much right as
He drank the tea Ann made for him.
Overall, the first sentence is correct without "for" and the second one is correct with or without "for".
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Is there any difference in register whether or not I use "for" in the second example?– FraOct 30, 2018 at 9:40
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Not a great difference, if you don't use "for" in the second example, it basically implies "He drank the tea that Ann had made him" and if you use for "it would imply "He drank the tea that Ann had made specifically for him", both mean pretty much the same thing and both can be used with the same meaning.– VeraenOct 30, 2018 at 9:47
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2I'm not convince that Ann made for him a cup of tea is "incorrect." Unusual? Yes. Recommended? No. But I'm not sure it's grammatically wrong.– J.R. ♦Oct 30, 2018 at 11:23
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1Made for him sounds like it's pointing out the target multiple times in the sentence while made him would imply she simply made him a cup of tea. For is used as a function word to indicate purpose, indicate an intended goal, indicate recipient or target object, it doesn't really fit in this sentence, "made him" already points out the recipient, and for is not needed in any case to the sentence itself. I don't have any official material to prove that it's not grammatically incorrect or correct, but I am confident that it's not correct grammatically.– VeraenOct 30, 2018 at 11:30
In spoken English you will usually hear it this way:
Anna made him a cup of tea.
Anna made a cup of tea for him.
But for him can come directly after made when the direct object has multiple constituents:
Anna made for him a cup of the second flush Darjeeling tea she had received earlier that morning in the mail.
You're more likely to encounter such a sentence in a story than in conversation.
