English Language & Usage Asked on July 18, 2021
This is probably a rather abstruse question about the usage of "prepare"; I haven’t been able to find any resources that clearly demonstrate or explain the difference in distributions of the verbs involved. I can only explain the problem through example sentences.
A lot of my students in SEA are using "prepare" ALL the time when they could (should?) have used another verb. For example:
These are just a few examples and as you can see, they are not always completely illogical choices of verb, but they just sound weird. The coffee example is perhaps the easiest to explain, but I often get stuck explaining the usage. As "prepare" means to do something beforehand, then students think they can use it for any activity they did before whatever event they’re talking about now … yet this isn’t the case. (Or there are at least more natural-sounding ways of expressing the situation.). So when _is_the transitive verb "prepare" meaning ‘get [something] ready’ idiomatic?
It's often helpful to know the etymology of a word when trying to better understand its core meaning. So here goes:
mid-15c., "set in order or readiness for a particular end," a back formation from preparation and in part from Old French preparer (14c.), from Latin praeparare "to make ready beforehand," from prae "before" (see pre-) + parare "to make ready" (from PIE root *pere- (1) "to produce, procure"). Compare pare (v.), which is from the same Latin verb. Related: Prepared; preparer; preparing.
Intransitive sense of "make (oneself) ready beforehand" is from c. 1500. The sense of "bring into a particular mental state with reference to the future" is by 1520s. The sense of "make (food) ready to eat" is from late 15c. (Caxton). The meaning "provide or procure for future use" is from 1530s. An earlier verb was preparate (late 14c.), from Latin praeparatus, past participle of praeparare. The Boy Scouts' motto Be Prepared is attested from 1911, based, as he said, on the initials of the organization's founder, Robert Baden-Powell.
Since the verb prepare means to produce or procure something beforehand in your example sentences, the following description of the verb is incorrect:
"prepare" means to do something beforehand
It's not just any doing, but it's producing or procuring, which would involve a complex task. That's why your three examples are all strange things to say. Putting some tips in a presentation, buying coffee, or making some photocopies isn't a complex enough task to be able to use the verb prepare. Instead, your students should use those specific verbs such as put, buy, make, etc.
Answered by JK2 on July 18, 2021
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