I'm trying to rewrite this sentence, can someone suggest a grammatically correct (and better) sentence:
I was not prepared for his calm enthusiasm for my question.
I'm thinking something like:
I was not prepared for his calm enthusiasm to my question.
But I'm not sure that maintains the same meaning and intent by substituting to
for for
. Is it grammatically correct to say, "his calm enthusiasm to my question"
?
The reason I ask, is because (to my native English speaker's ears) the phrase "his calm enthusiasm for my question"
sounds correct, even though I'd rather not repeat the word for
in the original sentence quoted at top. Maybe I just need to live with the repetition, but I'm very open to having someone suggest any alternative that doesn't involve repeating the word for
twice.