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I've read articles online that use "swap out with," but many dictionaries seem to prefer "swap out for." Do they differ in meaning? Also, can you specify a location after the word "out"?

Consider the sentences below for example:

1.) "Sean swapped the signed letter out [of the steel drawer] with/for the forged letter."

2.) "Sean swapped the youngest player out [of the team] with/for the more experienced one."

Thanks in advance for your answer!

user438978
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  • I'm not sure if it's exactly a duplicate, but "Replace with" versus "replace by" seems to cover much the same ground as this question. – FumbleFingers Nov 17 '21 at 14:32
  • Out is not part of a phrasal verb. The letter had been taken out of the drawer, and the player out of the team. – Kate Bunting Nov 17 '21 at 14:34
  • I'm good with I swapped out* the faulty drive* and I swapped the faulty drive for* a new one. For no obvious reason, I wouldn't be so likely to include out* in that second longer utterance, but it wouldn't bother me if someone else did include it. I'd say that in those examples, *out* is indeed part of a "phrasal verb" combination - but as Kate says, it's just a preposition in *out of the drawer / team, and in those* contexts I don't find it idiomatic to include a *for-clause* specifying what was swapped *in* as a replacement. – FumbleFingers Nov 17 '21 at 14:48
  • Thanks, Kate and FumbleFingers, for your insights! But should "swap out" be followed by "for" or "with"? Can we use either? Thanks! – user438978 Nov 17 '21 at 15:12
  • To my my mind if you swap A for B then you have removed B and left A in its place, however swapping A with B means the opposite to me. I would say that I might swap something with someone else which would mean that the items swapped would be equivalent in some way (for example I might swap coats, or cars or houses with someone else) but I wouldn't use with to describe the action of removing B and leaving A. The use of 'substitute' often seems to be reversed these days as well. People say "substitute A for B" when they mean use B instead of A but that's the wrong way round to me. – BoldBen Nov 18 '21 at 09:32

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