Noah replaced the wheel for the car. → Noah replaced the wheel of the car.

What’s the difference between of and for? Although the two words share two of the same letters, they have completely difference meanings.

Some of the main uses of for is to express for the sake of, for the purpose of, or on behalf of. It would be strange to say Noah is replacing the wheel for the sake of the car because the car is not a living, breathing organism that would appreciate the new wheel.

Of denotes possession, can mean to consist of, and can express causation. It is the car’s wheel that Noah is replacing. This is a case of possession, so using of here instead of for would be appropriate.

Here are some more examples of uses of the prepositions for and of so you can get a better understanding of the different uses.

For

Matt bought some flowers for his mom.
Matt purchased flowers for the sake of his mom.
The new equipment was for cleaning up the beach.
The new equipment was for the purpose of cleaning up the beach.
Mia spoke for her absent father at the meeting.
Mia spoke on behalf of her father who was not there at the meeting.

Of

The beak of a pelican looks like a large pouch.
The pelican possesses a beak that looks like a large pouch.
Ava drank a cup of water.
Ava drank from a cup consisting of water.
Grandma died of cancer nine years ago.
Cancer is what caused Grandma to die nine years ago.

These two sentences below have completely different meanings from just having different prepositions.

Jill is afraid of Lucas.
Jill is afraid for Lucas.

In the first sentence, Jill is frightened by Lucas because of a certain trait or action of his. A certain feature or action of Lucas is causing Jill to be scared of him.

In the second sentence, Jill is afraid on behalf of Lucas. Something frightening is happening to Lucas and Jill is scared in his stead.

Now that you’ll seen how for and of are used in different sentences, you can test out your understanding of the to prepositions with these practice questions. The answers are at the bottom of the page.

  1. We found out that Levi was the son of/for the CEO.
  2. The statue is made of/for carved wood.
  3. Isabel took an extra piece of candy of/for her daughter at home.
  4. Did Ashton close the back door of/for the building when he got off work?
  5. The dog will die of/for starvation if we don’t feed it.
  6. Mother said, “Get a good education of/for a better future.”
  7. Evelyn got a book off the shelf of/for me because I was too short to reach it.
  8. The whiskers of/for a cat sense vibrations in the air.
  9. Do you think the company made the new sports facility of/for its staff?
  10. A water molecule is comprised of/for two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.

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Answers to the practice questions:

  1. of
  2. of
  3. for
  4. of
  5. of
  6. for
  7. for
  8. of
  9. for
  10. of

References:

What is the difference between “of” and “for”?
Answer (1 of 9): Prepositions tend not to have absolute meanings, but express general ideas of location, movement, purpose, direction, possession and so on. We often find that prepositions are used differently in different languages - and even in English, there are differences between North Ameri...
Quora
Difference Between Of and For in English Grammar | Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms
Of vs For in English Grammar Since of and for are prepositions that are commonly interchanged by many, it is essential to know the difference betw
Differencebetween.comAdmin
Of vs. For: Differences and Proper Grammar Use
The difference between “of” and “for” is subtle, but you can learn to say what you mean with fun sentence examples.
YOURDICTIONARYMichele Meleen, M.S.Ed.