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In Advanced Grammar in Use (Cambridge) the following sentence is grammatically correct

We all envied him his lifestyle.

Is the meaning of the particular sentence the same as the sentence

We all envied him for his lifestyle. ?

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    Yes, it's his private jets, exclusive vacations, expensive clothes, fine dining, fast cars, choice of wines, size of house, limitless credit card, massive art collection, beautiful friends, etc. that you envy. It's because of or for his lifestyle.
    – Peter
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 13:36
  • @Peter That should be an answer, because it really helped me!
    – V.Lydia
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 14:01

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Yes, it's his

private jets
exclusive vacations
expensive clothes
fine dining
fast cars
choice of wines
size of house
limitless credit cards
massive art collection
beautiful friends
etc.

that you envy.

All those things (and possibly more) are the accoutrements of his lifestyle.
You envy him for those things.
You envy him for his lifestyle.

Alternatively, you could envy him for his good looks or his sense of humour
but those are not part of his lifestyle

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  • So "I envy him his lifestyle" means "I envy his lifestyle" ?
    – V.Lydia
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 14:27
  • "I envy him for his lifestyle is correct. If you use "I envy him his lifestyle" the Grammar Gestapo will lock you up(!) you need to add for
    – Peter
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 14:29
  • This is mentioned in oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/envy_2 : envy somebody something, I envied him his good looks.
    – V.Lydia
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 15:36
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    I've only heard "I envied him for his good looks" or "I envied his good looks", possibly its a BrE way of using envy, they drop words (from an AmE perspective) from time to time. I think if you said it to an AmE speaker they would think you said "I envied him: his good looks, his fast cars, his big house."
    – Peter
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 17:19
  • I can't agree with this: envy can be monotransitive, taking as object either the person or the possession, or ditransitive, taking both as objects.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Jan 25, 2016 at 23:25
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The verb construction is to envy someone something. Oald gives a survey about the possible constructions. The construction with "for" is not listed. http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/envy_2

In AmE the construction with for is used: I envy you for your large group of friends. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/envy

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