provide something to/for someone (2025)

Hello,
I've seen both prepositions used in very similar sentences and I wonder if there's any difference between them. Would they both work in: "The hotel provides shoe cleaning service to/for its clients" and "We provide legal advice to/for our clients"? For some reason I have a preference for "for". What do you think?

Thank you.

I'd accept either in both of those sentences, but if I were saying or writing them, I'd use "for" in the one about shoe cleaning and "to" in the one about legal advice.

By the way, we usually refer to a hotel's customers, like those of a restaurant, as patrons rather than clients. (Clients is right for the lawyers.)

I just came across: "Providing welcoming atmosphere to customers was a huge part of my previous job." The sentence makes sense, but how could one provide an atmosphere?

Click to expand...

I would have said, "Providing a welcoming atmosphere for customers . . .". Or perhaps "Creating . . . ". In answer to your question, depending upon the kind of place, a "welcoming atmosphere", one that makes customers feel comfortable and, well, welcome might include pleasant decor, a comfortable place to sit, soft music, good food . . .

The general distinction, Gandalf, is that "provide something to someone" says that it's provided directly to the person concerned. Whereas with "provide something for someone", it might be provided to an intermediary.

For example, a food-product company may provide a range of foods for vegetarians, but they provide the products to a retailer.

In many cases, the two concepts coincide, so either "to" or "for" would make sense. In your two examples in post #1, I agree with Parla that either would be acceptable — and, like Parla, I'd probably go for "for" in the first sentence, and "to" in the second.

- "The hotel provides a shoe cleaning service for its clients": I'd prefer "for", because the hotel isn't directly providing 'shoe cleaning' to the guests. Someone is cleaning shoes for the guests; the hotel then returns the clean shoes.

- "We provide legal advice to our clients": Here, the advice is almost certainly being provided directly to the clients, either in discussion or in writing.

But it's more of a nuance than an obvious difference.

(By the way, in BrE 'patrons' is a rather old-fashioned term, in this context. A hotel's customers are often called guests.)

Ws

I agree with the above opinions and I just attach a link from an authoritative source.

provide definition and synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary