none the wiser

hirashin

Sempai

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8 Apr 2004

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• 19 Oct 2014

• #1

Dear native English speakers,
Which word can be put in the blank, for, after or from?
He is none the wiser ___ the failure. (I want the sentence to mean that he hasn't learned anything from the failure.)
Hirashin

 

WonkoTheSane

先輩

12 May 2013

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• 20 Oct 2014

• #2

I would say 'for' if I meant the failure didn't teach him a lesson it should have, or 'after' if there was no lesson he *should* have learned, but still one he *could* have learned.

This gets well outside of what is correct and gets into what an individual's speaking patterns are. Most Americans probably wouldn't say any of those expressions.

 

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

Twenty-year veteran

15 Mar 2002

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• 20 Oct 2014

• #3

"None the ____ for ____" is a sort of set pattern and I don't think it is used very much these days.

 

hirashin

Sempai

Donor

8 Apr 2004

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• 20 Oct 2014

• Thread starter
• #4

Thank you for your help, Wonko and Mike.
Since I am a high school teacher now, I have to explain all the expressions
our textbooks deal with. I think we should teach common expressions
in high school, but I don't have the authority to change the textbooks.
Hirashin

 

Mike Cash

骨も命も皆此の土地に埋めよう

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15 Mar 2002

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• 20 Oct 2014

• #5

As a matter of syntax, either "for" or "after" will work. But I think the pattern is almost always used with "for".

 

WonkoTheSane

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12 May 2013

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• 20 Oct 2014

• #6

Is agree it's virtually always 'for'. Go with that. I was presuming this was for private study and probably got tediously specific instead of just saying what the set pattern is.