"Opportunities of" vs "opportunities for;" which one is correct and why?

Question

The sentence is "I was privileged with ample opportunities of one on one interactions with my writing teachers."

Would it be more appropriate to use "for" or "of" in this situation? What dictates that?

Thanks

Answer 1

As an American in California I would only use "for" and would find it completely strange to use "of".

In American English an "Opportunity For" Something, is always the object being given: I was privileged with an Opportunity for improvement, I was privileged with an opportunity for self-employment.

You could also have "opportunity to": I was privileged with the opportunity to go home, I was privileged with the opportunity to take the lead"

You may have been thinking of this due to some examples where "of" indicates a more exact meaning of the preceding noun. Like "I was privileged with the power" vs "I was privileged with the power of healing", the second sentence being more precise.

In general and in my experience "Of", being used like this, would be used to indicate that the preceding noun 'belongs to' the noun following "OF" as a form of describing the preceding noun (in a metaphorical sense); As in, "Place OF Interest" (a place that is interesting), "Flights OF Fancy" (a flight that is fanciful), "Feats OF Strength" (a feat requiring strength), "Birds OF a Feather" (an english idiom where the Birds share the same feathers/attributes) , "The Sound OF a horse neighing" (the sound a horse makes when neighing), "Color OF Love" (the color that best describes the feeling of love), "Power OF One" (how powerful one is). Therefore "Opportunities of One-on-One interactions" makes it sound like the "opportunities" were being given by the "One-on-One interactions" rather than "the interactions" being the "Opportunity" itself, as is your intention.

That is to say: your sentence doesn't make sense with "of" use "for", but if you had "opportunities of interactions" you would be thinking about the opportunities the interactions would be giving you, not that the interactions were themselves an opportunity. So "of" in this case provides that the preceding noun is an attribute of the following noun. The opportunities are a result of the interactions.

Answer 2

Using "of" subordinates "interactions" as types of "opportunities". Are interactions merely one kind of opportunity or can opportunities lead to interactions? Both may be true, and the question is really a matter of preference. I would personally go with "for," as it seems less opportunistic.

Answer 3

I would have written in "to have" and crossed out both "for" and "of" because in my territory (SAE) this use of "for" might be considered a bit arcane sounding.

Setting regional bias aside, "for" is the correct answer.

The reason why is that the preposition "for" is related closely in some meanings to "have," especially when describing possessed purpose, reason, cause, or function.

Consider:

"She is searching for enlightenment."

"She has the opportunity for enlightenment."

In these ways "for" means "to have, to gain, or to come to possess." If literally expanded, the first sentence could be expressed:

"She is searching (why?) to (gain|have|get|find) enlightenment"

Given this meaning of "for", consider that as a word, "opportunity" means the chance to gain something. When we modify its type with "of" we are not modifying the object of gain, but rather the nature of the chance:

"The opportunity of a lifetime." (the type of chance)

When we use "for" we are modifying the purpose/object of gain:

"The opportunity for failure." (what is to be gained, or lost)

I hope this answers your question sufficiently. Again, though, I would probably edit the sentence to the more contemporary form: "... opportunity to have one on one interactions ..."

Answer 4

Using appropriate prepositions after opportunity to illustrate its meaning is very nifty craftwork. I use opportunity 'of' when there is a continuous or perfect form of verb continuing, such as: "I was deprived of the opportunity of meeting my favourite movie star." Opportunity 'for' can be used when you are taking about abstract rage or emotions, like "opportunity for redemption, for glory, for immortality." In your sentence, however, 'of' is more befitting as there is the clause 'was privileged', and also, 'of' sounds much more symphonic than 'for' in your case.

Answer 5

A shortcut I like to use, is to break it down to bare bones first, and then see which way sounds best. For example, "I was privileged with many opportunities..." is reduced to "I had chances" (of/for) "time with my profs." See? Clearly it sounds better as "I had chances for time with..." rather than "I had chances of time with..." Not exactly scientific, but I usually find that if it's awkward to the ear, the wording might need be tweaked a bit :)

Answer 6

In this sentence I would go with 'for'. I had a serious exam and the sentence structure was very similar to this, the correct answer was 'for'. The sentence is also more fluent and is normal and goes unnoticed.

"I was privileged with ample opportunities FOR one on one interactions with my writing teachers."

"I was privileged with ample opportunities OF one on one interactions with my writing teachers."

The second does not flow and makes less grammatical sense. Hope I could help!

Answer 7

The confusion here seems to arise from the fact that "opportunities" in this sentence is used to denote a potential amount of face to face time, and both "of" and "for" can be used in relation to number/quantity/amount in ways that are grammatically correct.

While it might seem at first like "ample" and "privileged" are the terms that relate to amount in the above sentence, one could take those words out of the sentence and be left with one that has a nearly identical meaning, only with a touch less emphasis ("I had opportunities for one on one interactions with my writing teachers").

When discussing the correct usage here, the conversation is really between 3 choices: "of", "for", and "to." You should probably use "for" in this case, but not "of" or "to." In relation to numbers, "of" is (in general, as there are of course exceptions to most rules) proper in a situation where there is a clearly specified amount.

For your example, the sentence would be correct to use "of" if it read, "The three hours of one on one interactions with my writing teachers a week provided for an excellent educational experience," because the "of" relates to a specific amount of time. "To" would be used to indicate a period of time. So for example, "Monday to Friday."

Or in your sentence you could say something along the lines of, "For three hours a day Monday to Friday my writing teachers were available to meet one on one, providing an excellent educational experience."

If you don't want to alter the sentence structure though, the answer you are looking for is "for" because "opportunities" in this context relates to an unspecified amount or duration of time.

You can think of it by actually replacing the word "opportunity" with "amounts of time," so "I was privileged with ample amounts of time for one on one interactions with my writing teachers." Because it is an unspecified amount or a duration here, "for" is the correct usage in this sentence.