0:00 Hi everybody, my name is Alicia.
0:02 In this video, I'm going to look at how to use the preposition to.
0:07 Let's get started.
0:08 Okay.
0:09 First, I want to talk about using the preposition to to express a destination.
0:16 So, we use to
0:18 when expressing the end point
0:21 or the destination of a movement.
0:25 So, we can use this form of to
0:27 when we talk about our travel experiences
0:30 or just when we are talking about moving inside a room,
0:33 moving inside our community, and so on.
0:36 So, let's take a look at how we use to in this situation.
0:40 First, she went to the bank.
0:44 Here, to is before the destination, in this case, the bank.
0:48 She went to the bank.
0:50 The bank is the destination or the end point of her movement.
0:54 We use this with the past tense verb.
0:57 Next example is they drove to Mexico.
1:00 They drove to Mexico.
1:02 In this case, the destination or the end point is a country, Mexico.
1:07 We put to before the end point here to mark this.
1:11 Again, we have a movement verb in this sentence.
1:14 So, here we have drove, the past tense of drive.
1:17 Our first example was went, the past tense of go.
1:21 Let's look at one more example of this.
1:23 Let's move this meeting to a coffee shop.
1:26 Let's move this meeting to a coffee shop.
1:28 So, this is an expression we can use
1:30 if we want to stop having a meeting somewhere
1:33 and go somewhere else to continue talking.
1:36 Here, we have the destination or the desired, in this case, end point,
1:41 a coffee shop here.
1:43 So, this person is making a suggestion.
1:45 This is not a past tense example, but they're saying,
1:48 "Let's move to this destination."
1:51 So, they're talking about a destination in the future.
1:55 So, we can use to before a specific end point for our movement.
2:00 Please keep in mind you cannot use the word there in this case.
2:05 Sometimes I see learners say,
2:06 I want to go to there
2:08 or I lived to there
2:10 or I went to there.
2:12 So we cannot use there in this position
2:15 because there is not a specific end point.
2:18 We always use a specific location at the end of this two phrase, okay?
2:24 So make sure you mark those end points with two.
2:27 Okay, let's continue to the second one.
2:30 Number two is for recipients, recipients.
2:33 So that means we use two to mark the person receiving something.
2:39 So in a give and receive situation,
2:42 when you want to express the person who takes the thing
2:45 or who receives the thing,
2:47 you can mark that person with two.
2:50 Let's look at some examples.
2:51 Okay, first one.
2:53 Please send this file to the client.
2:56 Please send this file to the client.
2:59 In this case, the client is the person
3:01 or the group that is receiving the file.
3:04 Please send this file to the client.
3:07 If it helps you,
3:08 you can think of this person as the destination for something.
3:12 It has kind of the same feel.
3:14 That's the end point or the end person for the item.
3:18 So please send this file to the client.
3:20 Next one.
3:22 I gave my sweater to my mother.
3:25 I gave my sweater to my mother.
3:28 Again, my mother is the recipient of this object, my sweater.
3:33 I gave my sweater to my mother.
3:37 So this is one kind of example sentence.
3:39 There are other ways to talk about giving and receiving.
3:42 For example, I gave my mother my sweater is also 100% correct.
3:47 It's just that this is a different pattern
3:49 that you can use to express this giving
3:51 and receiving situation.
3:53 Okay, last example.
3:55 Take your application to the manager.
3:58 Take your application to the manager.
4:00 So again, we have our recipient here.
4:03 So in the future,
4:04 this person is going to take their application to this destination person,
4:09 the manager in this case.
4:10 So we use to to mark the person who receives something
4:14 or who is going to receive something.
4:16 They're kind of the end person or the end point person.
4:20 Okay, let's continue on to number three here.
4:23 So number one and number two were really about marking end points with people
4:28 and places.
4:29 Number three is about marking an end point with time.
4:33 So we use this a lot when we talk about our schedules.
4:37 Let's look at a couple of examples
4:39 and then we'll expand on this a little bit.
4:41 First, the meeting is 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
4:45 The meeting is 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
4:47 Here, two is before 3:00 p.m.
4:50 It marks the end point for the meeting.
4:54 Okay?
4:54 So we put two before the end time of something.
4:58 Let's look at one more example.
5:00 Her lectures are 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
5:04 Her lectures are 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
5:07 Again, we have two before the end point, the end time for the lecture.
5:13 So this is a very very common use of two.
5:16 We use this all the time.
5:18 I want to mention we often use this form of two with from.
5:23 So from and two are often used
5:26 as a pair to talk about the start point
5:29 and the end point.
5:30 So we use from before the start point and two before the end point.
5:35 For example, the movie is from 6:30 to 8:00.
5:39 The movie is from 6:30 to 8:00.
5:41 From marks the start point, two marks the end point.
5:45 One more example.
5:46 I work from 9:00 to 5:00.
5:48 I work from 9:00 to 5:00.
5:50 Again, from is before the start point and two is before the end point.
5:55 So, we always use this pattern when we talk about end points.
5:59 We cannot swap the two.
6:01 We need to use two before the end time.
6:04 Okay, great.
6:05 Let's move on to number four then.
6:07 Number four also talks about an end point.
6:11 We also use two to refer to an end point,
6:14 but this is in terms of like a maximum of something.
6:17 When we talk about a range of numbers or a range of time periods,
6:22 for example, when we want to talk about the last possible of something
6:26 or the maximum of something,
6:28 we use two to do that.
6:30 So, let's look at these examples.
6:32 First, we can accept eight to 10 people for the event.
6:37 We can accept eight to 10 people.
6:40 Eight to 10.
6:41 This gives us a range of possible people.
6:45 So, minimum is eight people.
6:46 Maximum is 10 people.
6:48 Inside this range is acceptable for us.
6:51 So, two marks the maximum in this case, the maximum in our range.
6:56 Okay?
6:57 Let's look at the second example.
6:59 The meeting will be finished in 5 to 10 minutes.
7:03 The meeting will be finished in 5 to 10 minutes.
7:06 Again, we have a range here. 5 to 10 minutes.
7:10 So, when you are trying to estimate the end point of your meeting,
7:14 you probably are going to use an expression like this.
7:17 Maybe 10 to 20 minutes
7:19 or when you're talking about a project you're working on,
7:23 it'll be finished in maybe I don't know, 1 to 2 days.
7:27 You can use this two before the end point
7:30 or the maximum point for your range.
7:32 So, this is a very, very, very useful use of two.
7:37 So, 5 to 10 minutes gives us the rough start point
7:40 and the maximum point for our range,
7:42 the end of our range.
7:44 Okay, one more.
7:45 It can take two to three weeks to review job applications.
7:50 It can take two to three weeks to review job applications.
7:53 So again, we have our range here from two, maybe about two,
7:58 until the maximum point in our range is three.
8:01 So again, we use two before that maximum end of our range point.
8:06 Okay?
8:06 Great.
8:07 So, we use all of these,
8:09 all of these 1 2 3
8:10 and 4 are referring to some kind of end point
8:13 or some kind of destination in terms of a place
8:16 or in terms of a person
8:17 or in terms of a time.
8:19 Okay?
8:20 So, with this in our minds, let's continue on to some different uses.
8:24 This this side of the board has some kind of different uses
8:27 that are important to talk about
8:29 and these are a little bit more,
8:31 I guess, conceptual than the first four points we talked about.
8:35 So, first, number five, we use to to express purpose.
8:41 It has the meaning of in order to, in order to do something.
8:46 So, we often reduce this in order to to just to.
8:50 So, let's look at some examples so you can see what this looks like.
8:54 First, I went to the store to get milk.
8:57 I went to the store to get milk.
8:59 So, here we have this first preposition.
9:01 I went to the store, right?
9:02 Our destination.
9:03 So, there's first two here is our destination two.
9:07 Then, we have this purpose marking two, to get milk.
9:12 This one tells us the purpose of our travels, right?
9:16 I traveled to the store
9:17 or I went to the store in order to get milk.
9:21 So, this one is a purpose two.
9:24 How do you know
9:25 when it's a purpose two
9:26 or a travel two
9:27 or I don't know.
9:28 A good hint is
9:29 that there's some kind of information at the beginning of the sentence.
9:33 There's some kind of travel, like we see here, I went to the store.
9:37 There's something that's already happening there,
9:39 and then we have extra information about the reason that happened.
9:43 So, let's look at our second example.
9:46 He bought a truck to drive to work.
9:48 He bought a truck to drive to work.
9:50 Here again, we have a simple past tense statement, right?
9:53 He bought a truck.
9:54 And then, to drive to work.
9:56 To drive to work.
9:58 So, he bought a truck in order to drive to work.
10:01 So, this expresses the reason he bought the truck.
10:04 We use to to do this.
10:06 We do not use for.
10:07 He bought a truck for drive to work would be incorrect.
10:11 You may see some for driving patterns, like for plus the ing form.
10:17 You may see that.
10:18 He bought a truck for driving for his job or something like that.
10:21 You might see those kinds of patterns.
10:23 But, we cannot put to and that ing form together,
10:28 and we cannot put for and drive together.
10:30 We cannot mix these two.
10:32 To drive or for driving, but we cannot mix them.
10:36 Okay?
10:36 Let's look at one more example.
10:38 She got a part-time job to earn some extra money.
10:42 She got a part-time job to earn some extra money.
10:45 Again, we have a simple past tense statement.
10:47 She got a part-time job.
10:49 Why?
10:49 In order to earn some money.
10:52 So, when you see this extra information, this reason for doing something,
10:57 we use to after generally like a past tense statement,
11:01 at least in these examples.
11:03 We use this to plus
11:05 that extra information to express the purpose of the situation.
11:10 Okay?
11:11 So, just keep in mind that yes,
11:12 there are some cases where you can use to plus
11:15 that infinitive form or for plus the gerund form,
11:18 but we cannot mix those two different grammar patterns.
11:21 So, please be careful of that.
11:23 Sometimes I see that.
11:24 Okay.
11:25 Let's move on to the last part.
11:26 Just some other uses.
11:28 So, I mentioned this just now, the infinitive verb form.
11:32 The infinitive verb form is just the base verb form,
11:34 the form of the verb you see in the dictionary
11:36 if you look up a word in the dictionary.
11:39 So, we use the infinitive form with to, to see or to buy,
11:43 to go or to talk.
11:45 So, when you are doing grammar practice or grammar studies,
11:48 when you see infinitive form or infinitive verb form,
11:52 it refers to this kind of base form of the verb,
11:55 to plus the verb.
11:57 So, we use this sometimes in grammar patterns like we just saw here to
12:01 talk about the purpose.
12:02 So, when you see infinitive verb form, that means the to verb form, okay?
12:07 Another use I want to talk about is just with set expressions.
12:11 So, set expressions can mean idioms, it can mean phrasal verbs and so on.
12:16 There are lots and lots
12:17 and lots of phrasal verbs
12:18 and expressions that use to,
12:21 but they are different from these expressions
12:23 and these uses that I talked about in this lesson.
12:26 So, I wanted to cover a few
12:28 that maybe could cause some confusion
12:30 because they seem similar to points number three
12:34 and four in today's lesson.
12:35 So, a few set expressions I want to talk about are from time to
12:40 time,
12:40 from A to Z, and from person to person.
12:44 So, what do these mean?
12:45 You see this similar from to pattern here, right?
12:49 But it's not like a start point and end point, really.
12:52 So, what does this mean?
12:53 You might see people say from time to time.
12:56 This expression means sometimes or occasionally.
12:59 Like, I like to go to the movies from time to time.
13:02 This just means sometimes, it's a casual way of saying sometimes.
13:07 This expression, from A to Z, you might think, "What?
13:11 Is this about the alphabet?"
13:12 This is when we're talking about a range of something.
13:15 So, we use this expression from A to Z
13:18 when we want to express
13:20 that someone can do everything
13:22 or that someone is good at a wide range of things.
13:25 So, for example, oh, that tech company, they have so many products,
13:29 they have everything covered from A to Z.
13:32 That means that that company, that technology company,
13:35 can do a lot of different things.
13:37 So, A to Z generally means
13:39 that they can do everything in like a certain field
13:43 or in about a certain topic
13:45 and so on.
13:46 So, you might see from A to Z used.
13:49 Lastly, from person to person, from person to person.
13:52 So, in this expression,
13:53 I have person to person
13:55 but you may see this used in terms of groups of people like from
13:58 community to community or from city to city
14:00 or from country to country
14:01 and so on.
14:02 These usually are used to talk about differences between people, differences between places, countries,
14:09 maybe languages and so on.
14:11 So, an example sentence about with this one might be something like,
14:15 "Opinions are different from person to person."
14:18 So, this means that each person has a different opinion in this example sentence.
14:23 So, this from person to person or this from noun to noun,
14:27 where the noun is the same here,
14:29 refers to usually differences
14:31 or maybe just kind of slight differences even in each of those situations
14:36 or each of those people.
14:38 So, these are a few set expressions
14:40 that might be a little bit confusing
14:41 when you see them the first time
14:43 because they seem to follow this pattern,
14:45 but they do have some specific uses.
14:48 And of course, as I said, there are many,
14:49 many phrasal verbs that use to and other prepositions,
14:53 but it's not possible to cover all the phrasal verbs in one video.
14:56 So, I wanted to introduce these uses of to in this lesson.
15:01 So, that is it for this lesson.
15:02 I hope that you got some good information about how
15:05 and when to use to.
15:07 Of course, if you have any questions
15:09 or comments or if you want to practice making some example sentences with to,
15:13 please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video.
15:16 Also, don't forget, if you like this video,
15:18 don't forget to give it a thumbs up
15:19 and subscribe to the channel
15:20 if you haven't already,
15:22 and also check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other things
15:25 that can help you with your English studies.
15:28 Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon.
15:31 Bye.
