to [1]
Usually pronounced [PH:t][PH:&] before a consonant and [PH:t][PH:u] before a vowel, but pronounced [PH:t][PH:u][PH::] when you are emphasizing it. (PREPOSITION AND ADVERB USES)
In addition to the uses shown below, to is used in phrasal verbs such as `see to' and `come to'. It is also used with some verbs that have two objects in order to introduce the second object.
1 prep You use to when indicating the place that someone or something visits, moves towards, or points at.
Two friends and I drove to Florida during college spring break...
2 prep If you go to an event, you go where it is taking place.
We went to a party at the leisure centre...
3 prep If something is attached to something larger or fixed to it, the two things are joined together.
There was a piece of cloth tied to the dog's collar...
4 prep You use to when indicating the position of something. For example, if something is to your left, it is nearer your left side than your right side.
Hemingway's studio is to the right...
5 prep When you give something to someone, they receive it.
He picked up the knife and gave it to me...
6 prep You use to to indicate who or what an action or a feeling is directed towards.
Marcus has been most unkind to me today...
7 prep You use to with certain nouns and adjectives to show that a following noun is related to them.
He is a witty man, and an inspiration to all of us...
8 prep If you say something to someone, you want that person to listen and understand what you are saying.
I'm going to have to explain to them that I can't pay them.
9 prep You use to when indicating someone's reaction to something or their feelings about a situation or event. For example, if you say that something happens to someone's surprise you mean that they are surprised when it happens.
He survived, to the amazement of surgeons.
10 prep You use to when indicating the person whose opinion you are stating.
It was clear to me that he respected his boss...
11 prep You use to when indicating what something or someone is becoming, or the state or situation that they are progressing towards.
The shouts changed to screams of terror.
12 prep To can be used as a way of introducing the person or organization you are employed by, when you perform some service for them.
Rickman worked as a dresser to Nigel Hawthorne...
13 prep You use to to indicate that something happens until the time or amount mentioned is reached.
From 1977 to 1985 the United States gross national product grew 21 percent...
14 prep You use to when indicating the last thing in a range of things, usually when you are giving two extreme examples of something.
I read everything from fiction to history.
15 prep If someone goes from place to place or from job to job, they go to several places, or work in several jobs, and spend only a short time in each one.
Larry and Andy had drifted from place to place, worked at this and that.
16 If someone moves to and fro, they move repeatedly from one place to another and back again, or from side to side.
♦
to and fro phrase
She stood up and began to pace to and fro...
17 prep You use to when you are stating a time which is less than thirty minutes before an hour. For example, if it is `five to eight', it is five minutes before eight o'clock.
At twenty to six I was waiting by the entrance to the station...
18 prep You use to when giving ratios and rates.
...engines that can run at 60 miles to the gallon.
19 prep You use to when indicating that two things happen at the same time. For example, if something is done to music, it is done at the same time as music is being played.
Romeo left the stage, to enthusiastic applause...
20 If you say `There's nothing to it', `There's not much to it', or `That's all there is to it', you are emphasizing how simple you think something is.
♦
there's nothing to it convention
(emphasis)
Once they have tried growing orchids, they will see there is really nothing to it.
21 adv If you push or shut a door to, you close it but may not shut it completely.
He slipped out, pulling the door to.
