Who is this for? vs "Who does this belong to?"?

Question

Yesterday I asked an Australian friend "Who is this for?" in reference to a wallet on his desk. He laughed and thought my sentence didn't make sense in the context of the situation. Instead, he proposed that I should have asked "Who does this belong to?" Can someone help me understand the difference and whether my usage was correct or incorrect, or whether my friend's response to my query was warranted (at least conversationally)?

Answer 1

Hi,

”who does this belong to” is better structured and grammatically correct, because you are asking who that wallet belongs to (you are asking for possession). Whereas, when saying “who is this for” is a little more ambiguous because you are not asking who it belongs to, but rather who the wallet is for (perhaps it could be mistaken for someone had brought the wallet for someone else). In English, even when conversing “who does ___ belong to” is correct.

Hope that helped.