feeling for

[Lucretia]

Hello,
I’ve got some doubts about this sentence.

If you want to get a better feeling for how the city is laid out, you __ walk downtown.

1. Is the preposition for OK?
2. Which modal verb would be the best – can, could, may, have to, must or might? It seems, any of them could do.

Thank you.

[Bridget]

Hello,
I’ve got some doubts about this sentence.

If you want to get a better feeling for how the city is laid out, you __ walk downtown.

1. Is the preposition for OK?
2. Which modal verb would be the best – can, could, may, have to, must or might? It seems, any of them could do.

Thank you.

It's "a feeling of". "A feeling for something" means you have a special aptitude regarding that thing. "Get a feel for" (become accustomed to) is also possible.

EG

She's got a feeling for languages. = She has a natural aptitude for languages.

The modal verb would depend on the speakers attitude and what he/she wanted to express.

A few possibilities:

could/can = It's possible to walk downtown. It's not far.
could/can = Don't ask me for information, go look for yourself
have to/must = You can't get the feeling from here, it's necessary to experience it first hand.
have to/must = I think it's a great idea to get a feel for the city from downtown. You should try it. It's a must.
might = polite suggestion

[Pete]

Hello,
I’ve got some doubts about this sentence.

If you want to get a better feeling for how the city is laid out, you __ walk downtown.

1. Is the preposition for OK?
2. Which modal verb would be the best – can, could, may, have to, must or might? It seems, any of them could do.

Thank you.
In this case, "a feeling for (something)" sounds OK to me also. I think it is supposed to mean "an internalized, almost intuitive understanding (of something)". I use "feeling for" in that way. I tried a limited Google search for "feeling for", and the list included examples of several different uses. Another meaning of "feeling for" is "affection for".

One good example with what seems to me to be the same meaning as in this question is:
>"A Feeling for the Situation | TIME
>"Now I have a feeling for this situation," said President-elect Dwight Eisenhower as he was leaving Korea last week."
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=+site:www.time.com+%22feeling+for%22

-- The Google search was for:
> site:www.time.com "feeling for"

[Lucretia]

Thank you, Bridget and Pete.