For/reason

Question

.Are these sentences correct with the given meanings:

1-She will not help you for bothering him.
Meaning: Because you bother her, she will not help you.

2-She will not help you for what you have done to her.
Meaning: Because of what you have done to her, she will not help you.

3-You bothered her and she will not help you for that.
Meaning: You bothered her and that is why she will not help you.

Maybe one needs a comma before "for" in 1, 2 and 3?

We do say "He does not see the forest for the trees." but maybe that is an old-fashioned expression that has survived in the language. Sentences 1, 2 and 3 sound strange to me.

Gratefully,
Navi.

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

In my dialect of (modern) English, none of those sentences work.

(In addition, you have a pronoun issue in the first one - him/her.)

RandomGuy · Answer

navitasanAre these sentences correct with the given meanings?

Yes, but none are natural.

She will not help you because you bothered her.
She will not help you because of what you have done to her.

4444mv · Answer

These two conjunctions have almost the same meaning and most often either can be used. However, it's usually safer to use because. The reason for that is that a clause introduced by for ( which we will call "for-clause") has a more restricted use than a clause introduced by because:
A for-clause cannot come before the verb which it explains: Because he was late, he didn't eat breakfast, (for is not possible.)
It's not possible to use a for-clause to answer a question: a) What made him do that? b) Well, he did that because he didn't have any other choice., (for is not possible)
A for-clause cannot come after not, but or any other conjunction: She didn't eat dinner, not because she wasn't hungry but because she is on a diet, (for is not possible)
A for-clause cannot repeat what has been already stated. It always has to include some new piece of information: He behaved really bad. She was angry because he had behaved very bad, (for is not possible.) But She was angry, for she didn't know how to make him behave himself. (Here for is correct; because is also possible.)
But why the restrictions? Well, the reason for them is that a for-clause does not tell us why a certain action was performed - but gives a piece of additional information which helps to explain it. Let's have a look at some other examples of for-clauses: Her grades were bad, for she learned very little. The dog wagged its tail happily, for it loved its owner. When I saw the painting I knew I had to buy it. For I've always been a great lover of art.

For/reason

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