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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Use of by or for

Which is correct: "By introducing a pension scheme the employer will do the right thing by their employees" or should it be "for their employees"?
I've just heard a government minister use this phrase and am not sure if it is good English.
  

Top answer

Which is correct: "By introducing a pension scheme the employer will do the right thing by their employees" or should it be "for their employees"? It is, There's not a lot of difference. The form eg 'Tom did the right thing by Mary' is more fancy, less common.

— Clive

  • Which is correct: "By introducing a pension scheme the employer will do the right thing by their employees" or should it be "for their employees"?
  • It is, There's not a lot of difference.
  • The form eg 'Tom did the right thing by Mary' is more fancy, less common.
  • It suggests that Tom had some strong responsibility to treat Mary well.
  • Consider - Mary says 'Tom, you have made me pregnant.
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4 Answers
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Which is correct: "By introducing a pension scheme the employer will do the right thing by their employees" or should it be "for their employees"?
I've just heard a government minister use this phrase and am not sure if it is good English.It is,

There's not a lot of difference.
The form eg 'Tom did the right thing
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The use of 'by' adds the idea of being honor-bound to 'do the right thing'. This extra nuance is not included if you use 'for' instead.

CJ
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Oh.. I've never seen or heard that use of 'by' so far.
Can it be found in a dictionary?
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