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With or without FOR? "The last thing I want is (FOR) anyone to..."

English Language & Usage Asked on October 3, 2021

I am doing Proficiency exam practice and came across the following sentence transformation:enter image description here

As you can see, according to the answer key, my answer is wrong. However, I did some research and found out that my version also works. Is it the case of the structure simply being more idiomatic with FOR?

One Answer

No, your answer is plain wrong.

It would be correct to say “I don’t want anyone to intervene”. But in your example the clause “anyone to intervene” is a predicate to “thing”, not a complement to “want”.

Try slightly changing the word order: “For anyone to intervene is the last thing I want” is correct. “Anyone to intervene is the last thing I want” is obviously incorrect.

Correct answer by Marcos Gonzalez on October 3, 2021

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