Project name

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Dear All,Should I say of or for here?Project NameCONTRACT XYZ-123 OF/FOR NEWLY-BUILT YANGJIU-YANGSAN HIGH SPEED RAILWAY CIVIL WORKSThank you...

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

Both! "Contract XYZ-123 for [the] <action/activity> of [the] newly built ..."
Or, if civil works is the action/activity, then use for.

The contract exists for the purpose of defining an agreement between parties, for the performance of an action or activity - the construction (or maintenance, or whatever) of the railway.

You might also want to mention the aspect of the railway that the contract is related to (construction, maintenance, commissioning, purchase, financing, etc). That would be more specific. If civil works is actually the activity, perhaps you could be more specific about the type of civil works that the contract relates to. You can't really say "Contract for civil works of newly built ..."

Of is used before the noun for things that relate to the noun, i.e. railway network itself. For example, "the tracks of the railway network", "the cleaning of the trains" etc. For is used to indicate the purpose or reason for a verb.

This is probably a difficult distinction for you, since your native language (Japanese?) may not have different words or ideas for these two subtly different concepts.

Also, I think newly built is not normally hyphenated, although it is used here as an adjective phrase.

I hope this makes sense! If you don't understand, please give me some more examples to use.

Perfect Stranger · Answer

Such a WONDERFUL answer! Wow! Kris, thanks man! Hats off to you!

Perfect Stranger · Answer

KrisBlueNZYou can't really say "Contract for civil works of newly built ..."

The problem is that I have to keep it as concise as possible because it's supposed to be used in a Completion Certificate document, so I have to keep it short.

KrisBlueNZhis is probably a difficult distinction for you, since your native language (Japanese?) may not have different words or ideas for these two subtly different concepts.

Actually, it's not hard to get the point here. Your explanation is very clear. Plus, I'm European and we have something similar in my laguage.

When it comes to English I'm just not very familiar with business and technical vocab and collocations... Prepositions are also a big pain in the neck.

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

If you can describe what the contract is for, in detail, I'll try to suggest a title.

I don't think I was very thorough with my answer. It is also possible for something to be for a noun. An obvious example: "This is for you." I guess you could say this is a contraction of "This is for you to have", which associates for with a verb. On the other hand, a contract can't really be of anything; a contract is always for a purpose.

I guess we both should have done our "due Google diligence": http://www.google.com/search?q=of+vs+for

Perfect Stranger · Answer

Thanks Kris, I appreciate your effort a lot!

This is all I have. The following was included in the original document.

Project Name

CONTRACT XXXX-00 OF NEWLY-BUILT YANGJIU-YANGSAN HIGH SPEED RAILWAY CIVIL WORKS

KrisBlueNZ · Answer

If you can't describe the contract and exactly what it is for, I can't help you with a good name for it. I can tell you that Contract of ... is not good English.

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