Forum contributor Oscar Lagman, a fellow columnist who writes commentary for a Metro Manila business paper, sent me the following e-mail a few days ago:Hi Joe,
I wish you could write about the proper use of the preposition “to.” I find the use of “to” in the phrase “share to” wrong. “To” suggests movement towards a place, person, or thing; “share” connotes having something in common with others. I often read in newspapers or hear in broadcast reports the phrase “shared to...” as in “The official shared to me the story of how the scam was pulled off,” or “the star of the team shared to his teammates the prize money.” How can one have in common or “share” with others something that has moved away?
I think “to” is also used incorrectly in the phrase “I agree to...” when the agreement means having an idea or concept in common with another person, as in “I agree to that —that one should wear formal attire when attending weddings.” It should be “I agree with you—one should wear formal attire when attending weddings.” “I agree to...” is correct when agreement means acceptance of a chore, assignment, traditional act, etc., as in “I agree to stand as your Best Man at your wedding” or “I agree to keep secret your wedding date.”
Oscar
My reply to Oscar:I promised to whip up a quick write-up to address the preposition usage problems you’ve brought to my attention. The more I thought about them, however, the more I realized that a quick write-up would just be a stopgap solution to the preposition misuse we often come across in the print and broadcast media and most everywhere that English is used in the country. In short, Oscar, preposition usage is admittedly not a particularly strong suit of ours as writers and speakers of English.
So, instead of just affirming all of your corrections and caveats in the use of the prepositional phrases “share to…” and “agree to…”, I decided to take up the subject much more systematically and extensively using the vast wealth of material about preposition usage that I’ve written over the years. I’ll run the retrospective series in the Forum every other day starting Monday, October 15, 2018, in the “Getting to Know English” section.
The series will consist of the following four lessons:
1. Lesson #1 –
The Prepositions Revisited (Monday, October 15, 2018)
2. Lesson #2 –
Specific Rules for Preposition Usage (Wednesday, October 17, 2018)
3. Lesson #3 -
Getting to Know the Prepositional Phrases (Friday, October 19, 2018)
4. Lesson #4 –
Dealing with the Prepositional Idioms (Sunday, October 21, 2018)
It would be nice if you could share this information with your associates and friends.
Have a great week ahead!
Sincerely yours,
Joe Carillo
(October 14, 2018)
