Cambridge directly documents both willing to do and willing for someone to do, providing a useful subject-sensitive complement distinction without inferred gerund symmetry.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “be willing to do something” when the grammatical subject is ready to act. Use “be willing for someone to do something” when willingness concerns another person’s action.
Key details
Confusion Familyverb-complement
Rule Familyverb-complementation
Termswilling to do, willing for someone to do
Further guidance
Core difference
Cambridge documents willing to do for the subject’s readiness and willing for someone to do when the action belongs to another person.
Style Boundary
Keep the different subjects explicit; the for + person + to-infinitive pattern is not interchangeable with the simple willing + to-infinitive pattern.
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.
Be willing to↗ (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct dictionary evidence for willing + to-infinitive and willing for + person + to-infinitive.
Cambridge directly records amazed + to-infinitive and amazed at + complement, making it an evidence-safe replacement for the unsupported Satisfied proposal.
Oxford directly records both ashamed + to-infinitive and ashamed of + noun/pronoun. The guide compares those attested structures without inventing an unsupported parallel complement.
Oxford directly documents averse to (doing) something. This is a prepositional to + noun/-ing construction, so a bare infinitive should not be assumed to be an interchangeable complement.
Oxford documents the idiomatic adjective pattern bent on (doing) something for determination. The evidence does not license a parallel bent + to-infinitive complement for that same meaning.
