Dear A B:

You asked:

Why do we say: “An apple for eating” BUT NOT “An apple to eat”?

 

These two phrases are both standard English, but they have two different meanings. “An apple for eating” has to do with what you do with the apple. There are eating apples and cooking apples (a few, like Macintoshes are both).  A Golden delicious is an apple for eating. A Granny Smith is a pie apple or an apple for cooking. (We could also say “an eating apple” or “a cooking apple.” Or, for that matter, “a baking apple.”)

 

An apple to eat is more general. “What did you have for snack?” “He gave me an apple to eat.”

What is the difference in meaning between these two following sentences:

Police advised us against entering the building, for a murder had occurred.
Police advised us not to enter the building, for a murder had occurred.

 

These two sentences mean the same thing. The second one is more direct and clear. The first one sounds a little inflated or bureaucratic. It is a matter of style, not meaning.

He told me about coming to The Netherlands.
He told me to come to The Netherlands.

 

These have two very different meanings. “To tell about” means to recount an experience or sharing some information. “He told me about his experiments with the T. gondii B1 gene.” “To tell someone to do something” is to give a command or request.

 

So “He told me about coming to the Netherlands” means “he told me about his visit to Holland,” or, perhaps if the context suggested it, “he told me what to expect upon visiting Holland.” But “he told me to come to the Netherlands” means “he asked or ordered me to go to Holland to join him there.”

I hope this helps.