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Consider the following sentences
We came here to learn English.
We came here for learning English.
I suppose most of us here would agree that both of them are grammatically correct.
And I thought they mean the same thing until a native speaker told me there is slight difference depending on contexts.
However, he didn't explain the difference and contacts. Could someone help with me on this?
We came here to learn English.
Correct.
We came here for learning English.
Wrong.
"For" in this context should have a noun as it's object: "for a thing".
We came here for the cupcakes.
We came here for a specific purpose.
"For" could be used with "learn":
We came here for the purpose of learning English.
Notice that "purpose" is clearly a noun. "for the purpose of learning" and "to learn" are basically synonymous here.
How about this sentence:
We came here for swimming.
Something's strange about that.
We came here to swim.
Ok.
The next question, is why. What explains the rule? This is a conundrum, because as a native speaker I know what sounds right or wrong, without always being able to say the rules. It may be due to the fact that there's a difference between a noun and a thing. Even though "learning" is grammatically a noun, it's more of an action than an object.
