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Hello,

' Come and see for yourself at Huaxing clothes store!' I have a question that whether we can replace 'for yourself' with 'by yourself'. How are they different from each other? Could we analyse the sentence like this?: Come and see at Huxing clothes store to buy some clothes for yourself, because sometimes 'for' means in order to help sb/sth.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

For yourself = in person

By yourself = without any companions

Neither 'for' nor 'by' above refers to the purchase of clothing, but I think you mean 'for'.

Avangi · Answer

"See for yourself" is an idiom. (with your own eyes)

"See by yourself" is not. It would mean, "Don't bring anyone with you."

I'd stick with your original.

"Buy something for yourself" means "it will be yours." It does not mean that you must do it alone, as in "you're going to have to do it for yourself."

- A.

Greetings, MrM!

Yiduo · Answer

Thanks,

Your analysis is quite helpful. The key point is "See for youself" is an idiom. I hadn't known that,so when I read "See for yourself", I paused a while. I actually mean "Come and see (clothes) for yourself'.That means "Buy something for yourself". So there is a misunderstanding between us from the last part of your analysis. So there is another point which I want to confirm is that we don't use the expression "see clothes". Is that right ?

Thank you again.

Avangi · Answer

"Come and see for yourself" is quite appropriate when used to make the contrast with looking in a catalog, or online, or having someone else tell you about something.

We often use "see" idiomatically to mean "find out."

We say things like, "When it happens to you, then you'll see how it feels to be rejected." (Yes, it's a bit casual.)

Try it on. See how it fits. This really means, "Find out how it fits."

Come in and see if we have something you like. (find out)

But it's perfectly natural to say, "You have to see these clothes!" In this case, we're definitely talking about seeing with your eyes!

I wouldn't confuse "seeing" with "buying."

Come in and find something you like. Come in and find something for yourself. These suggest you buy something which will be yours.

Yiduo · Answer

Thank you,

I can feel your opinion is quite insightfull and you are very careful. But, to some degree, I can feel some kind of barrier for us to understand each other. It seems like a cultural barrier. I wll put my question like this: If I want to buy some clothes for myself, whether can I say "I will go and see some clothes so that I can buy some clothes for myself". First, I want to see the clothes in person. And second, I want to wear the clothes, buying clothes for myself not for others.So can " come and see clothes for yourself contain those two meanings?

Avangi · Answer

yiduoSo can " come and see clothes for yourself contain those two meanings?

Technically, it could, but a native speaker might not take it that way. And I don't believe a native advertiser would put it that way -- although I'm surely not in the business.

If you want to invite someone to come in and check out the new line of clothing by looking at and trying on a few items, "come in and look at some clothes for yourself" would be more likely.

A customer might say, "I'd like to look at some shirts" or "I'd like to see some shirts," but "to look at them" is considered more pro-active than "to see them." If you want the person to feel involved, inviting him to look at them would be more effective than inviting him to see them.

If you want an up or down answer on whether or not your sentence means what you say you want it to mean, my answer would have to be "no."

Yiduo · Answer

You have made it and I see. Many thanks.

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