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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

look out for oneself to something

Hi, guys,
I saw a sentence today, and it goes like "to look out for oneself to the detriment of others."

I don't understand why it is " 'to' the detriment of others" instead of other preposition. Of course, I can't think of other proper preposition to put here, but I really need to know the reason why. Can anyone enlighten me with a grammatical explanation here?

Thank you

Ilona
  

Top answer

My feeling is that it depends on the words it is replacing. ‘to the detriment of others’ means ‘leading to ***’ ‘for the benefit of others’ ‘to look out for oneself at the expense of others’ is much the same. ‘to his credit’ is idiomatic and means ‘adding to his good standing’

— Wilpeter

  • My feeling is that it depends on the words it is replacing.
  • ‘to the detriment of others’ means ‘leading to ***’ ‘for the benefit of others’ ‘to look out for oneself at the expense of others’ is much the same.
  • ‘to his credit’ is idiomatic and means ‘adding to his good standing’
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1 Answers
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My feeling is that it depends on the words it is replacing.
‘to the detriment of others’ means ‘leading to ***’
‘for the benefit of others’
‘to look out for oneself at the expense of others’ is much the same.
‘to his credit’ is idiomatic and means ‘adding to his good standing’
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