word choice - "Alternative to" vs "Alternative for"


I'm wondering whether there is a difference between these two expressions. I never know which one to use. Google seems to return the same amount of results for both, so I suppose there might be a difference.




  1. What are the alternatives for this project?

  2. What are the alternatives to this project?




Answer



To me these two statements have different meanings.



What are the alternatives to this project?



This means "What other projects could we do instead?"



What are the alternatives for this project?



This means "In the context of this project, what choices do we have about how to solve it?


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