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Anuj89 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

'for'

"Privately, the three of us examined his case and came up with a theory: that the key to a happy family life was for there not to be a family"
I am unable to understand the use of 'for' in the above sentence.Can anyone explain??

Thanks in advance
  

Top answer

In this situation, "for" appears to be a preposition. " So here the prepositional phrase is "for a family," which functions as a adjective: the linking verb "was" links the subject, "the key to a happy family life," with an adjective in the predicate, which describes it. "

— Anonymous

  • In this situation, "for" appears to be a preposition.
  • " So here the prepositional phrase is "for a family," which functions as a adjective: the linking verb "was" links the subject, "the key to a happy family life," with an adjective in the predicate, which describes it.
  • "
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2 Answers
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In this situation, "for" appears to be a preposition. This is easier to see if you rearrange the words: "...the key to a happy family life was for a family not to be there." So here the prepositional phrase is "for a family," which functions as a adjective: the linking verb "was" links the subject, "the key to a happy family life," with an adjective in the predicate, which describes it. The
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'for' is a complementizer introducing an infinitive clause.

These are also called FOR ... TO ... clauses. FOR there not TO be a family.

A rough paraphrase is The key to a happy family life is that there should not be a family.

The meaning is The key to a happy family life is not to have a family. In other words, If you don't have a family, you
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