# FR: acheter qqch à/pour/de qqn - buy something for/from someone



## vivian10

According to a French textbook for American high school students, the expression "_acheter quelque chose à quelqu'un" _simply means "to buy something *for* someone". However, according to WordReference, the same expression can also mean "to buy something *from* someone". Is this accurate - can the expression in French mean two different things in English? And second, is there a difference between "_acheter quelque chose *à* quelqu'un" _and _"acheter quelque chose *pour* quelqu'un"? _Is one more acceptable than the other?

Merci d'avance.

*Moderator note:* Multiple threads have been merged to create this one.  This thread is about French usage.  
If you are interested in the English prepositions, please see EN: acheter à - buy from/at/for - preposition.


----------



## tilt

_Acheter qqch à qq'un _can mean both yes, and only the context could help making the difference.
The problem is that _acheter qqch pour qq'un _is ambiguous too, because it could mean you're making this person a gift, or that you're just buying the thing on behalf of him/her. Once again, only context makes it all.

Thus, I wouldn't say a form is more acceptable than the other. They're just equivalent, in my opinion, when meaning the same.


----------



## geostan

I am surprised that a textbook designed for English speaking students would suggest that acheter qqch à qqn typically means to buy something for someone. 

Since it very often means to buy from, the book should compare the possible meanings.

As an anglophone, I would say that as long as the meaning is clear, à could mean either _from_ or _for_. But if it could go either way, I would use _pour_ (for) and _à_ (from).

Jean devait sortir sa petite amie ce soir. Alors, il est passé chez le marchand de fleurs lui acheter un bouquet. (Clearly the meaning is _for_)

Mon ami Jacques _m_'a acheté ma bagnole. (Clearly the meaning is _from_)

Je voudrais acheter une voiture à mon père. (Personally, and without further clarification, I would assume the meaning is _from_. To clarify, I would use _pour_ if I meant the other.)

This is just my opinion.


----------



## itka

I don't agree with you for the last one :
_Je voudrais acheter une voiture à mon père._
The first meaning I'd think would be _for _my father otherwise the sentence would be : _Je voudrais acheter *sa* voiture à mon père.

_I think most of the times *acheter à* is understood as_ "to buy *for* sb".
_Anyway this verb makes always ambiguous sentences. 
That's why it is often replaced by _"offrir" _or even, in colloquial french_ "payer".
"Il a offert un manteau de fourrure à sa femme"
"Il a payé un manteau de fourrure à sa femme"
_


----------



## Lezert

geostan said:


> Je voudrais acheter une voiture à mon père.


This sentence would mean, for many people, that you would make a gift to your father.

To express that I woud buy a car from my father, using the same construction, I would say: Je voudrais acheter *sa *voiture à mon père.  (=  Je voudrais acheter la voiture de mon père )


----------



## tilt

itka said:


> I don't agree with you for the last one :
> _Je voudrais acheter une voiture à mon père._
> The first meaning I'd think would be _for _my father otherwise the sentence would be : _Je voudrais acheter *sa* voiture à mon père._


But what about your father owning several cars? 
You might say _Je voudrais acheter *l'une de ses* voitures à mon père_, but Geostan's sentence can fit as well.

That said, I agree that _à_ is most of the time understood as _for_.


----------



## geostan

If that is so, how would you express the idea of buying _*from*_ someone.
You cannot use *de* as in _J'ai acheté une voiture de mon père,_ which means to me: I bought a car belonging to my father. I may have bought it from someone else, acting on my father's behalf.


----------



## no_cre0

As said before, it all depends on context. Very rarely would you just out of the blue say "Je voudrais acheter un voiture à mon père". You would have been discussing buying cars/where you were going to buy a car. Therefore, it would be understood that you would be buying it FROM your father and not FOR your father.


----------



## itka

> how would you express the idea of buying _*from*_ someone.


We'd mostly say : _"Monsieur X m'a vendu une voiture !"_ 
Or we would explain : _"J'ai acheté une voiture à Monsieur X" _---> no doubt because of the context
_"Ma nouvelle voiture ? Je l'ai achetée à mon père !"_ ---> just create a context !


----------



## Nicomon

Hello,

This thread reminded me of another one

If I heard for instance _j'ai acheté une voiture à mon frère_,  I would think the person is very generous with his/her brother. Not that the brother sells cars. 

In my vocabulary, _acheter *à* _ means _for/pour_.


----------



## no_cre0

Toutefois, si vous êtes en train de parler avec un pote qui chercher quelqu'un à qui il peut acheter une char, vous comprendriez la différence, n'est-ce pas? C'est ce que je veux dire - il faut faire attention au contexte pour savoir.


----------



## Nicomon

Oui... mais ce « chum », s'il est québécois, ne le dirait pas ainsi. Il me demanderait sans doute :

Familier : « sais-tu qui aurait un char à vendre pas cher » ?
Moins familier :  « sais-tu où je pourrais trouver une auto, à bon prix? »

Il cherche plus la voiture ou l'endroit où l'acheter que la personne qui en a une à vendre.
Et il va l'acheter *de* cette personne.  Ce *de* est sans doute fautif, mais bon... c'est ainsi.


----------



## vivian10

Thank you for the lively discussion on this matter!  I have an follow-up question...This was posed by my high school students and I am not quite sure how to respond.  

An activity in the book asked them to respond to a question using as many object pronouns as possible.  The question was, "Tu as acheté le cadeau pour ta soeur?"  And the response would be, naturally, "Oui, je le lui ai acheté" (I suppose we can just ignore the fact that one would normally use "offrir" in this context...).  Students learn that indirect object pronouns _lui _and _leur _replace _à_ + a person.  Obviously, "pour ta soeur" can be replaced by _lui_ - but why is this?  Is it because "acheter qqch *à* qqn" is implied?


----------



## no_cre0

No, its because "ta soeur" is an indirect object. It can be used to replace pour.


----------



## snarkhunter

I've just read this topic and now feel it raises a very interesting point. And perhaps not so easy to settle.

I would tend to consider a very important difference in context between "acheter à" and "acheter pour".

To me, "acheter pour" means the person the gift was purchased for may have been present at the time... or not (but most often, not).

Whereas "acheter à" implies the person was there. In the latter case, the purchaser may even never have been handed the gift, which went straight to the hands of the "recipient".

I'm not 100% sure, though, but it's what experience is telling me right now.


----------



## itka

snarkhunter, tu veux dire que, la phrase suivante implique la présence de la sœur ? _"J'ai acheté un cadeau à ma sœur pour son anniversaire"_.

Je ne suis pas du tout d'accord sur ce point...


----------



## snarkhunter

I stand corrected! I do agree with you. This was indeed pure speculation from me, and you've proven me wrong there...

_Dura context, sed context_

Sorry about my mistake.


----------



## ladan shirali

Hello there;
Is it correct to say:
Acheter quelquechose pour quelqu'un or shall we say à quelqu'un?


----------



## NotSo

Les deux semblent corrects mais on dirait plutôt "acheter quelque chose à quelqu'un".

Pour moi, la nuance est la suivante :

J'achète un collier à Anna : Je lui achète le collier et le lui offre tout de suite après l'avoir acheté.
J'achète un collier pour Anna : Je l'achète, puis je le garde pour lui offrir plus tard, pour une fête d'anniversaire par exemple.


----------



## FreddieFirebird

Je veux dire "I buy a suit for my father".
Est-ce qu'on dit "J'achète un costume pour mon père", ou "J'achète un costume à mon père"? 
(I've seen both of the above as correct, in different sources, so I am confused.)


----------



## snarkhunter

Both can be used. And it's indeed very confusing since, in such a sentence, "à..." can mean 'for' as well as 'from'.


----------



## midoan

And "pour" can mean "for" as well as "instead of"!


----------



## tartopom

I would say that 'acheter à quelqu'un' sounds more colloquial than 'acheter pour quelqu'un'.
Am I wrong ?


----------



## Maître Capello

midoan said:


> And "pour" can mean "for" as well as "instead of"!


Well, yes, but in the sense _in stead of_ or _in lieu of_, not _rather than_ or _as an alternative to_.



tartopom said:


> I would say that 'acheter à quelqu'un' sounds more colloquial than 'acheter pour quelqu'un'.


I wouldn't say that… To me both are good and "neutral" from a register point of view.


----------



## garoto36

Je viens de lire cela au dictionnaire Littré, et je pense qu'il s'agit d'une information très utile sur ce sujet : 

"Je me suis acheté un manchon, c'est-à-dire j'ai acheté un manchon pour moi, est une locution qui peut se dire, puisqu'il n'y a aucune amphibologie. Mais déjà l'amphibologie commence si l'on met : On m'a acheté un manchon, qui peut signifier : on a acheté *pour *moi, ou *de *moi, un manchon. On peut voir au n° 5 que Corneille s'en est servi ; mais elle mérite beaucoup d'attention, pour qu'il n'y ait pas d'équivoque. 

Le danger de l'amphibologie augmente dans une phrase comme celle-ci qu'on entend tous les jours et qui est en effet dans le dictionnaire de l'Académie : J'ai acheté une montre à mon fils, avec le sens de pour mon fils ; mais qui peut aussi signifier : J'ai acheté de mon fils une montre, il m'a vendu une montre. On prendra donc bien garde, en s'en servant, à l'amphibologie ; et, *en tout cas, on remarquera qu'ici l'emploi de à au lieu de pour est du parler vulgaire et négligé*."


----------



## Maître Capello

Maître Capello said:


> […] note the difference between _acheter qqch *pour* qqn_ (= to buy sth *for the use of* sb / *on behalf of* sb) and _acheter qqch *à* qqn_ (= to buy sth *for* sb). The preposition changes the meaning of the phrase.





jann said:


> I don't quite understand you, MC.  The TLFI indicates we can use both _acheter à_ and _acheter pour_ when the indirect object is the beneficiary of the purchase.


Although the TLFi doesn't seem to make a difference, to me there is the nuance I indicated above. Besides, _acheter *à*_ usually implies that you've already given/offered the item/gift to the person, while _acheter *pour*_ often (but not systematically) implies that you've bought it but haven't given it yet.

_J'ai acheté un tableau *à* mon frère. Il en est très content._
_J'ai acheté un tableau *pour* mon frère. J'espère qu'il lui plaira._​
Besides, both _acheter *à*_ and _acheter *pour*_ are ambiguous, but in a different way:

_Acheter *pour*_ can mean any of "to buy *for*," "to buy *for the use of*" or "to buy *on behalf of*," e.g.:

_J'ai acheté un tableau *pour* mon frère. Il ne pouvait en effet pas venir l'acheter lui-même._​
_Acheter *à*_ can mean either "to buy *for*" or "to buy *from*," e.g.:

_J'ai acheté un tableau *à* mon frère. Il n'en voulait plus._​
Note: This post was moved from this thread.


----------



## chiapas249

Bonjour à tous

J'ai déjà vu dans le site [french.about.com]

Acheter quelque chose pour quelqu'un [buy sth for sb]

et aussi à cette adresse 
http://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/acheter

J'ai acheté des œufs au fermier.      I bought some eggs [from] the farmer  

merci


----------



## drhex

In the Lucky Luke album "Le bandit manchot", p. 18, a one-armed bandit has just been tested by Emma, who liked it. So she says to its constructors:

_- Je voudrais vous acheter cette machine pour la mettre à notre local de la ligue des femmes contre .. euh .. pour les jeux de hasard.
_
It is clear from the context that she wants the buy the machine *from* the constructors,  I had however expected   "Je voudrais vous acheter cette machine" to mean "I would like to buy you this machine".  Is the sentence I quoted normal french or a bit odd?   How do you express the difference between buying *from* someone and buying *for* someone in french?


----------



## OLN

Hi drhex.

We use the same pronoun " _*te/lui/vous/leur* _acheter quelque chose" to mean buy something _from_ someone and buy something _for _someone.
It's clear from the context that the woman is addressing the machine's owner and that she would like to buy the machine _from_ him and put it in her league's premises.

If the context is not clear (who's the owner, whom you buy it for, where it will go), and to mean you'd like to buy the machine _for_ the person:
_- _simply use the verb _offrir _instead of _acheter_ (and maybe _aimer _instead of _vouloir_) :_ Je voudrais/j'aimerais vous offrir cette machine.
- _add sufficient context:_ Je voudrais/j'aimerais vous acheter cette machine et la mettre dans votre local _or_ pour que vous puissiez la mettre dans votre local._

[…]


----------

