FOR or Through? Don't lose the forest for the trees. Don't lose the forest through the trees. Personally, I don't think "through" makes sense here. How can you see the forest through the trunk of a

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Natalie Dawn

FOR or Through? Don't lose the forest for the trees. Don't lose the forest through the trees. Personally, I don't think "through" makes sense here. How can you see the forest through the trunk of a tree? Which's a solid thing. I can't wrap my head around it.

May 25, 2013 1:53 PM

Answers · 8

Think of a flyscreen. You can look through it even though it because of its gaps. The concept is the same here. To look through trees is to look through the gaps between the trees (which is why 'tree' has to be plural here).

May 25, 2013

The expression is really "Can't see the forest for all of the trees", and it means that someone is looking so intently at a specific part of an issue or problem that they really cant see the bigger picture. I hope that helps.

May 25, 2013

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