Impose on and impose for

Question

I was wondering if anyone had a good explanation regarding the use of impose on compared to impose for.

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had a good explanation regarding the use of impose on compared to impose for.

The standard collocation is 'impose on', and not 'impose for'.

eg Tom imposed on Mary.

eg Tom imposed on Mary to lend him some money.

eg Tom imposed on Mary for money.<<< Perhaps you are thinking of a sentence like this?

You can also use the verb 'impose' without 'on'. eg The new law imposed the death penalty.

And you can, of course, interject phrases with 'for' where the 'for' is not really related to the verb 'impose'. eg The new law imposed, for murder, the death penalty.

You might be interested in Googling these two strings (impose on and impose for), and noting how many more hits you get for the former.

Best wishes, Clive

Anonymous · Answer

I had the same thoughts - that generally impose is used with on but one of my students came up with a list of situations where impose for is used.

Often relating to fines/penalties etc

Fine imposed for.....

Fees imposed for..... etc

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Yes, that kind of thing is possible. But you might like to ask your student to do some Google searching. I did, and got these results.

2,500,000 pages for "impose on"

54,900 pages for "impose for".

That's why I said that The standard collocation is 'impose on', and not 'impose for'.

Best wishes, Clive

Impose on and impose for

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions