Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / June 2005

"are", not "is".

In what sentence? Be specific, please. Or do you mean in all possible
sentences that might contain "prepare" or "prepare for"? Good grief,
Rolita! How can you ask such a question?

Why don't you try to use these two different verbs in a few different
sentences and see if you can figure it out for yourself. The easiest
way to discover the rules or reasons is to write ten differnetly
structured sentences with "prepare" and then rewrite the same ten
sentences with "prepare for" instead of "prepare" but without
changing anything else. Then you can ask yourself what each sentence
means and how the "prepare" version differs from the "prepare for"
version. Then you can ask yourself whether one of them seems
ungrammatical or otherwise strange and decide what is wrong with it.
Then you can try to find a bunch of "prepare" and "prepare for"
sentences on the Web. That'll give you some external data to work
with and something that will allow you to ask a reasonable question
rather than an absurd question, as you have done here.  Then show us
what you've done and what you think and why you think it, and there
will be some substance to respond to.

EG:

1. "Let's prepare lunch" = "Let's make lunch".

2. "Let's prepare for lunch" = "Let's get ready to eat lunch".

Now, you should be able to see the reasons one uses one verb instead
of the other. If you don't, there is no hope. Try learning Arabic
instead.

The usual way is

[subject] prepare [object - what is being prepared] for [purpose or
event, reason why the preparation is happening]

Examples:

The teacher prepares the exam.

The teacher prepares the exam for the students.

The students prepare for the exam =
The students prepare themselves for the exam.

The 'themselves' refers to the students, and is usually omitted. In the
same way,

I am preparing for my holiday.

The object here isn't stated - it could be

I am preparing [myself] for my holiday.
I am preparing [my luggage] for my holiday.

Owain