Learn English – “provide” vs. “provide with”

prepositionsverbsword-choiceword-usage

I am wondering if the following sentence is correct:

We add the information their study provides with to our article.

The context is: their study provides with some information. And we add the information to our article.

I want to keep the word "add", and someone told me that "provides with to" sounds wired…

Best Answer

The verb provide has two different subcategorisation frames:

  1. provide something [ to somebody]
  2. provide somebody with something

In the first, the material provided is the object, in the second the recipient is the object.

Both are valid, and both are in common use. The difference between them is the with phrase, which must be there to get meaning 2: if there is only one (direct) object, then meaning 1 is the relevant one (the to phrase is optional).

The stranding you are doing can be grammatical, but because you are using with, it is grammatical only if the recipient is explicit as the direct object

We add the information the study provides us with to our article.

(Thanks to Jonathan Spirit for the example)

If you are not expressing the recipient, you need to use pattern 1, which has no with:

We add the information the study provides to our article.