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Prepositions after verbs

Offer by or offer to?

Offer to is the standard pattern before a person or an infinitive. Offer by is not normally used as a fixed combination after the verb offer.

Quick answer

Which form is correct?

Use offer to when giving something to someone or volunteering to do something: They offered help to us. She offered to drive. Offer by is not a standard verb-preposition pattern, although by may appear separately in passive expressions such as an offer by the company.

She offered to help.
They offered support to local families.
It was an offer by a private investor.

Choose the pattern by meaning

These forms are not interchangeable. Choose the construction by meaning, not by which preposition appears most often.

1
offer to + person

Giving something to someone

Use to after offer when naming the person receiving something.

He offered advice to the students.
We offered a refund to every customer.
2
offer to + verb

Volunteering to do something

Offer to plus an infinitive means volunteer or express willingness.

She offered to carry the bags.
They offered to stay late.
3
offer by + noun

Using by outside the verb pattern

By can appear with the noun offer to identify who made it, especially in passive or noun structures.

The proposal was an offer by the supplier.

See the difference in context

The same subject can take different constructions because each sentence answers a different question.

Construction
Example
Meaning
offer to someone
They offered assistance to the village.
Standard pattern for giving or presenting something.
offer to do something
He offered to explain the process.
Standard pattern for volunteering.
offer by
The grant was an offer by a local charity.
By identifies the source of the offer, not a fixed verb-preposition combination.
offer for
They offered a discount for students.
For expresses purpose or beneficiary, not the recipient after offer.

Common mistakes

Some combinations appear in real text but do not mean what learners often assume.

Using offer by as a verb pattern

Offer does not normally take by directly after the verb.

✕ She offered by help. ✓ She offered help to us.

Forgetting to before an infinitive

Use offer to plus a base verb when volunteering.

✕ He offered help carry the boxes. ✓ He offered to carry the boxes.

Using for instead of to for recipients

To introduces the person receiving the offer.

✕ They offered advice for me. ✓ They offered advice to me.

Quick practice

Choose the expression that matches the intended meaning.

1. She offered ___ drive us home.
2. They offered support ___ the new staff.
3. The donation was an offer ___ a local business.

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Frequently asked questions

Is offer by correct?

Not as a normal verb-preposition pattern. Use offer to for recipients or infinitives.

Can offer be followed by an infinitive?

Yes. Offer to do something is a very common structure.

Why do I sometimes see offer by?

By may identify who made the offer in noun phrases such as an offer by the company.

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