Questions from forces20 (August 20, 2010):
Hello Mr. Joe!
My teacher said, “We had to comply to this policy,” but I think it should be “comply with.” Am I correct or not? I also would like to know the difference between “comply to” and “comply with.”
Another teacher of mine gave us several examples of complex sentences. Was she correct when she said, “Because of the heavy flood, the meeting was postponed.” Isn’t “due to” the appropriate conjunction or preposition for that sentence? I am really curious if my teacher’s usage is right or not. Thank you.
My reply to forces20:
I’m afraid that your teacher is incorrect in using the phrasal verb “comply to” in the sentence “We had to comply to this policy.” It’s a big no-no. The standard form for that phrasal verb is “comply with,” which means “to act or be in accordance with a wish, request, demand, requirement, or condition.” Perhaps your teacher simply mistook the verb “comply” with “agree”; the phrasal verb “agree with” is standard usage, as in “We agree with this policy.”
Strictly speaking, though, there’s no logical, hard-and-fast reason why a certain preposition and not another is deemed correct in many phrasal verbs; native English speakers simply settled on particular prepositions for those phrasal verbs conventionally after years and years of usage. But then, as users of English as a second or third language, we just need to follow those conventions for preposition usage so we won’t be seen as clueless about English grammar.
As to “because of” in “Because of the heavy flood, the meeting was postponed,” your other teacher is correct in using that preposition. The sense of “because of” is practically equivalent to that of “due to,” so we can use them interchangeably in a great many cases. Take a look and read this sentence aloud: “Due to the heavy flood, the meeting was postponed.” You really won’t really perceive a significant difference in meaning.
