Bad For: Standard Pattern
Bad For: Standard Pattern records a directly documented English construction and keeps guidance bounded to the evidenced pattern rather than turning one attested complement into a universal prohibition.
Use “bad for” when describing something as harmful or detrimental to a person, thing, or outcome.
Key details
Choose the right form
| Meaning | Pattern | Example shape |
|---|---|---|
| harmful/detrimental | bad for + noun | bad for the battery |
| lack of skill/success | bad at + noun/-ing | bad at chess |
| negative quality | bad + noun/adjective context | a bad outcome |
Quick tests
Harm test
Are you saying that something harms, disadvantages, or is detrimental to a person, thing, or outcome?
If yes: Use “bad for” before the affected person/thing/outcome.
If no: If the meaning is poor skill or success, use the separate “bad at” pattern instead.
Caveat: This guide is bounded to the documented harmful/detrimental construction and does not turn “for” into a universal complement for “bad.”
Examples
Repeated deep discharge can be bad for a battery.
“Bad for” marks the thing adversely affected.
That schedule is bad for morale.
The complement names what is negatively affected.
She is bad for remembering names.
Better: She is bad at remembering names.
The sentence is about ability, so use the “bad at” pattern.
Further guidance
Construction
Use “bad for” when describing something as harmful or detrimental to a person, thing, or outcome.
Style Boundary
Cambridge directly records “be bad for someone” in the harmful sense; other senses of “bad” are outside this construction.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- BAD | English meaning — Cambridge Essential Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct dictionary evidence for the harmful “bad for” construction.