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2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1 - 0 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport:
To that end, the home supporters were in good voice to begin with, but it was Newcastle who started the game in the ascendancy, with Barton putting a diving header over the top from Jose Enrique's cross.
As above, with the verb implied.
"Did you visit the museum?" "I wanted to, but it was closed."
If he hasn't read it yet, he ought to.
Used to indicate an obligation on the part of, or a directive given to, the subject.
You are to go to the store and buy a bottle of milk.
A user suggests that this English entry be cleaned up, giving the reason: “Sense 1 is not the English infinitive morpheme, that would be -∅. The sentence "I could eat." contains a verb in the infinitive but no to. Rather, to is a particle that is used in conjunction with an already (zero-)marked infinitive. The box below, however, seems to contain a random mix of translations of the infinitive marker -∅ (e.g. German -en, Romanian -a, Turkish -mek) and the particle to (e.g. German zu, Romanian a).”
Please see the discussion on Requests for cleanup(+) or the talk page for more information and remove this template after the problem has been dealt with.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Driven by a perceived political need to adopt a hard-line stance, Mr. Cameron’s coalition government has imposed myriad new restrictions, the aim of which is to reduce net migration to Britain to below 100,000.
Used to indicate the target or recipient of an action.
I gave the book to him.
I spoke to him earlier.
He devoted himself to education.
They drank to his health.
So as to contact, press against, impact, etc.
I fixed the notice to the wall.
Put your shoulder to the door.
Used to indicate result of action.
His face was beaten to a pulp.
I tried complaining, but it was to no effect.
Used to indicate a resulting feeling or emotion.
To everyone's great relief, the tuneless carol singers finally ceased their warbling.
Used after an adjective to indicate its application.
similar to ..., relevant to ..., pertinent to ..., I was nice to him, he was cruel to her, I am used to walking.
Indicating a degree or level reached.
It was to a large extent true.
We manufacture these parts to a very high tolerance.
Used to describe what something consists of or contains.
Anyone could do this job; there's nothing to it.
There's a lot of sense to what he says.
The name has a nice ring to it.
Denotes the end of a range.
It takes 2 to 4 weeks to process typical applications.
With God to friend (with God as a friend); with The Devil to fiend (with the Devil as a foe); lambs slaughtered to lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice); took her to wife (took her as a wife); was sold to slave (was sold as a slave).
1867, Cornish Tales, in prose and verse by various authors, page 33:
"What's that to you?" said Trevool, rather sharply, "worn't I to a berrin? […]
Used more-or-less idiomatically with various verbs: keep to the left, agree to the proposal, attend to the matter, etc. See the individual entries.
Usage notes
In the sense of "as a", it is a fossil word (Standard English only), found usually only in obsolete set phrases like: "to take a woman to wife", "to have someone to friend", "to have something to birthright" etc. In northern dialects, where it is rare but still in common use, it is often used in combination with with.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Finnish: expressed with the case of the headword, often illative or allative case, -lle(fi), -an(fi)(e.g. kauppaan ~ to the shop), -en(fi)(e.g. mäkeen ~ to the hill), -un(fi)(e.g. kouluun ~ to the school), -yn(fi)(e.g. löylyyn ~ to the sauna), -seen(e.g. keskukseen ~ to the center), (genitive +)suuntaan(fi)(direction of), (genitive +)päin(fi)(direction of), (genitive +)luokse(fi)(to vicinity of), (genitive +)luo(fi)(to vicinity of), (genitive +)tykö(fi)(to vicinity of)
German: zu(de), nach(de)(in this sense only used for and sole preposition option for constructions without articles, i.e. general directions (e.g. up, west), most countries and cities etc. and nachhause/nach Hause (home)), in(de)
Ancient: εἰς(eis)(+ accusative case), πρός(prós)(+ accusative case), -δε(-de)(adverbial suffix added to certain nouns), -σε(-se)(adverbial suffix added to certain pronouns and adjectives)
Finnish: -lle(fi)(e.g. annoin lantin hänelle ~ I gave a coin to her/him; puhuin hänelle ~ I spoke to her/him), (genitive +)kanssa(fi)(e.g. puhuin hänen kanssa(an) ~ I spoke with her/him)
(mild intensifier,colloquial, chiefly North India) a filler word common amongst urban Indians.
I am to so bored right now.
References
Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", in The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8
S. Tsuchida, A Comparative Vocabulary of Austronesian Languages of Sinicized Ethnic Groups in Taiwan, Part I: Western Taiwan, Memoirs of the Faculty of Letters, No. 7 (1982)
The modern Danish form is a merger of the original East Old Norse accusative masculine twā and the nominative/accusative feminine twāʀ (West tvær). The neuter tū (West tvau) is preserved in the adverb itu.
The Phonology of the Hupa Language, part 1: The Individual Sounds, volume 5, by Roland Burrage Dixon, Samuel Alfred Barrett, Washington Matthews, Bill Ray (using the older orthography "tō")
Čestmír Loukotka, Johannes Wilbert (editor), Classification of South American Indian Languages (1968, Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California), page(s) 162
Ne sċeal nō tō hātheort, · ne tō hrædwyrde, ne tō wāc wiga, · ne tō wanhȳdiġ, ne tō forht, ne tō fæġen, · ne tō feohġīfre, ne nǣfre ġielpes tō ġeorn, · ǣr hē ġeare cunne.
Should not be too wrathful, nor too hasty in words, nor too weak warrior, nor too careless, nor too fearful, nor too joyful, nor too eager for money, nor ever too eager of pride, before he would know enough.
B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “to”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN
used to indicate that the subject of the conversation has peculiarities which are familiar to the interlocutors, so that nothing else needs to be said about it in order to understand the topic
Nasze straty są minimalne, ale bez śmierci się nie obejdzie. Wojna to wojna. ― Our losses are minimal but some casualties are inevitable. War is war.
No, ale rozkaz to rozkaz. Nie mnie podważać. ― Well, but an order is an order. Not for me to question.
Parę razy mi się udało. Z jedną to nawet bardzo. ― I have succeeded a couple of times. With one it was even very successful.
used to indicate what can be said about the topic, in contrast to all that cannot be said about it
W tych ścianach to ona była królową i musiała mieć królewskie wejście. ― Within these walls, it was her who was the queen and had to have a royal entrance.
so(used after a pause for thought to introduce a new topic, question, or story, or a new thought or question in continuation of an existing topic)
No, tośmy wczoraj mieli niezły bal! ― Well, we had quite a party yesterday!
(literary)used to indicate that the topic refers to a known object, mentioned in the preceding statement
O Czechosłowacji po roku 1968 dochodziły do nas ponure wiadomości, dlatego to starałem się przejechać ten kraj jak najszybciej mimo zmęczenia. ― There was grim news about Czechoslovakia after 1968, which is why I tried to cross the country as quickly as possible despite my fatigue.
(colloquial)used to indicate that what someone has said about the topic is a fait accompli and should no longer be discussed
Spróbuj zaakceptować jego wady. Nikt nie jest kryształowy. Pali to pali, widziały gały co brały. ― Try to accept his flaws. No one is perfect. OK, he smokes, so what? Big deal, you should've thought about it earlier.
Inna rzecz, że nikt nie zwracał na niego szczególnej uwagi; to go dziwiło. ― The other thing was that no one paid any particular attention to him; this surprised him.
used to point to the object to which the sentence refers
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), to is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 655 times in scientific texts, 307 times in news, 880 times in essays, 1038 times in fiction, and 2233 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 5113 times, making it the 11th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[1]
References
^ Ida Kurcz (1990) “to”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 605, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 2
Further reading
to in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
“TO I”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 09.07.2008
“TO II”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 09.07.2008
1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 14, page 90:
Shoo ya aam zim to doone, as w' be doone nowe;
She gave them some to do, as we are doing now;
1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 93:
A near a haapney to paay a peepeare.
Had ne'er a halfpenny to pay the piper.
1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 94:
Wee aar lhaung vlealès an pikkès, to waaite apan a breede.
With their long flails and picks, to wait upon the bride.
1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 2, page 94:
Hea marreet dear Phielim to his sweet Jauane.
He married dear Phelim to his sweet Joan.
References
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 31
gíga a rẹ̀ẹ́ tó erin ― His tallness is comparable to an elephant
Usage notes
It is a common verb in Yoruba names affirming the worthiness of entities like the orisha. (Ex. Ògúntósìn(“A Yoruba name meaning, "Ogun is worthy of being worshipped."”)).