English UsageComparison guide

Fine Someone For Doing vs. Fine Someone To Do

Cambridge gives fine + person + amount + for and passive “be fined for” when the following act is the offence that caused the monetary penalty.

Quick answer

Use “fine someone for doing something” when naming the offence. “Fine someone to do” is not the parallel penalty-reason construction.

Key details

Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction
Rule Familypreposition and verb-complement pattern
TermsFine Someone For Doing, Fine Someone To Do

Further guidance

Boundary

Keep the verb fine distinct from unrelated adjective/adverb senses of fine and from infinitives elsewhere in the sentence.

Construction

The offence or reason for the monetary penalty is introduced with for + noun/-ing.

Decision

Use “fine someone for doing something” when naming the offence. “Fine someone to do” is not the parallel penalty-reason 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.

  1. Fine — Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge Dictionary · Current dictionary construction showing fine someone for an offence or action.

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Cambridge distinguishes “apologize to someone” from “apologize for something/doing something.” You can combine the two roles, as in “apologize to someone for doing something”; “to” marks the recipient while “for” marks the reason.

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Approve Of Doing vs. Approve To Do

Cambridge distinguishes intransitive “approve of” for a favorable opinion from transitive “approve something” for official acceptance or authorization. The official-authorization sense uses transitive “approve” with an object; do not collapse that separate sense into the “approve of doing” judgment pattern.

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Oxford documents the person-action pattern as be banned + from + -ing and separately documents direct-object uses of ban. The cited evidence does not support person + to-infinitive as the equivalent prohibition construction.

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