with

[abcdeflearn1]

Hi,


The website provides you WITH enough information.

The website provides you information.


My question is " Is the preposition"with" needed in the sentence?


Thanks

[OddThomas]

In an earlier post I wrote about provide with. See http://www.englishpage.com/forums/showthread.php?p=41620#poststop.

In brief, the complete sentence is:
The website provides [to] you with enough information. Or,
The website provides with enough information to you.As you can see, you is the indirect object in your sentence. This raises the question, what is with doing in that sentence?!

If you must keep with in the sentence, then you becomes the direct object. Now the website is giving away yous, along with enough information.
The website provides (gives away) you with enough information.Maybe you and enough information are tied together with a colorful ribbon. :)

So the only logically and grammatically correct sentence is:
The website provides you enough information.I don't see how provide with could ever work.

[Rusty]

Hi,


The website provides you WITH enough information.

The website provides you information.


My question is " Is the preposition"with" needed in the sentence?


Thanks
"Provide somebody with something" sounds quite natural to me. These dictionaries confirm that "with" is a legitimate option:


http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=63696&dict=CALD (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=63696&dict=CALD)] We have concerns about whether the government will be able to provide viable social services for poorer families/provide poorer families with viable social services.


http://www.thefreedictionary.com/provide (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/provide)]

provide - give something useful or necessary to; "We provided the room with an electrical heater"
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/provide (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/provide)] 1. to make available; furnish: to provide employees with various benefits.2. to supply or equip: to provide the army with new fighter planes.

Google gives millions of examples.

[MrPedantic]

In BrE, you would almost always hear "provide someone with something". This may be a more recent development; in older texts, "provide someone something" is common, as in OT's examples.

I would say that the "with" links the verb to its complement, where "provide" = "equip" (rather than "give as a supply/equipment") and an indirect object intervenes:

1. I provided information = I gave information (as equipment for some purpose)

2. I provided him with information = I equipped him with information

MrP

[Marius Hancu]

1. I provided information = think flow/emission/broadcast of information

2. I provided him with information = think transfer (say of an object from the hands of one to another)

[OddThomas]

I suppose I won't be able to fix provide with any better than I fixed comprised of and hopefully in years past. But I've had my say now. :)

[MrPedantic]

Sorry, OT...I wouldn't think twice if I heard the with-less version from an AmE speaker; but with a BrE, I would feel some surprise.

(Does "present someone with something" seem as odd to you, out of interest?)

All the best,

MrP

[OddThomas]

It's vaguely disturbing, yes.

I went to my American Heritage Dictionary for their treatment of present, and they call it a transitive verb, therefore requiring a direct object. Imagine my surprise when I found they offer this example sentence for the meaning, afford or furnish:The situation presented us with a chance to improve our knowledge.
Analysis of that sentence with present as transitive would force us into the role of direct object. Their other two examples, present a play and presented his face to the camera, are sentence fragments yet clearly show verb and d.o. (The inmates do not run the entire asylum yet, but some corridors are not under management's control.)

[MrPedantic]

Would you be prepared to take the pronoun as an indirect object, in such cases? e.g.

1. John presented us to the committee. [direct object]
2. John presented us with a balloon. [indirect object]

[OddThomas]

#1 is terrific as an example of direct object form.

#2 makes for a very strange indirect object indeed:John presented [to] us with a balloon.
Or in better object-of-preposition order:John presented with a balloon to us. :eek:
This all sounds very clinical:John presented to us with a raging infection and little pink spots, doctor.
The way out of this, of course, is to expand the definition of present so that it can be intransitive.