none the wiser

[hirashin]

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]

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]

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

 

[hirashin]

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]

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

 

[WonkoTheSane]

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.