How to Translate For in Russian

“For” can be expressed in different ways in Russian according to the meaning of sentence. And of course, it means the need to use different cases and prepositions to build this sentences. So let’s start now.

The recipient of something:

When we want to indicate the recipient noun, we use the dative case and we don’t need any proposition.

The recipient of an action:

We use the preposition ДЛЯ followed by the genitive case to indicate the recipient of an action. If you look at the second sentence “she done that for her brother”, it has to be understand as “she done something for the benefit of her brother”.

In exchange of, instead of something:

We use the preposition ЗА with the accusative form to design the recipient of the action. In the second sentence “he did it for me”, the phrase must be understood as “he did it instead of me”.

If you compare the two sentences:

you see that both sentences can be translated in English by “for”. In Russian, the difference between both sentences are as follow:

means that “she done something for the benefit of her brother” while

means that “he did it instead of me”.

In the indication of duration of an action:

The accusative case is used in this case, but we don’t use preposition. In the case of the first sentence, the person means that she’s been reading for three hours, but not mentioning that she finished her book. The second sentence expresses that he worked in Moscow for two years, but maybe he hasn’t finished his job and will come back after a while.

In the indication of duration of a completed action:

With the proposition НА followed by the accusative case. Note that this construction is used after the action has been completed.

To indicate your support for someone of something:

We use the preposition ЗА followed by the accusative case.

When giving a deadline:

Preposition НА with the accusative case.