and also -
Why is it "zum Beispiel" and not "für das Beispiel"?
I am having trouble understanding the difference between "zum" and "für" in these examples.
"zum Abendessen" is also an example.
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Why is it "zum Beispiel" and not "für das Beispiel"?
I am having trouble understanding the difference between "zum" and "für" in these examples.
"zum Abendessen" is also an example.
It is »zu« (zum = zu dem) because German language over many centuries for no special reason developed to the usage of »zu« instead of »für«.
Thats all.
Living languages evolve slowly, but they evolve. And they have no desired direction where they should evolve to. They just change. German changes, English changes, and all other languages change too. Slowly, but noticeable.
It is impossible to tell how a language will change in the future, because most of the changes happen just by accident, for no special reason.
Many people ask:
Why has the language X the specific feature Y in this specific implementation, and not in the implementation that I did expect?
And the answer is always the same:
It just happened for no reason.
All you can do is: Accept how it is. Learn, that all German native speakers use »zu«, because all of their neighbors, colleges, friends, relatives and so on use it. There is no deeper reason behind this usage. Everybody uses it, just because everybody else uses it.
Also true:
In this constructions nobody uses »für«, because nobody else uses it. And the fact, that nobody uses it, defines this usage as wrong.