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A particle used for marking the following verb as aninfinitive.
I wantto leave.
He asked me whatto do.
I have placesto go and peopleto see.
To err is human.
Who am Ito criticise? I've done worse things myself.
Preciselyto get away from you was why I did what I did.
I need some more booksto read and friendsto go partying with.
1711 May, [Alexander Pope],An Essay on Criticism, London:[…] W[illiam] Lewis[…]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor[…], T[homas] Osborn[e][…], and J[ohn] Graves[…],→OCLC:
2011 April 10, Alistair Magowan, “Aston Villa 1 - 0 Newcastle”, inBBC Sport[2]:
To that end, the home supporters were in good voiceto 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 wantedto, but it was closed."
If he hasn't read it yet, he oughtto.
Used to indicate an obligation on the part of, or a directive given to, the subject.
You areto 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 noto. 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 particleto (e.g. Germanzu, Romaniana).”
Please see the discussion onRequests for cleanup(+) or thetalk 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 atWiktionary: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 migrationto Britain to below 100,000.
Used to indicate the target or recipient of an action.
I gave the bookto him.
I spoketo him earlier.
He devoted himselfto education.
They drankto his health.
So as to contact, press against, impact, etc.
I fixed the noticeto the wall.
Put your shoulderto the door.
To clutch/clasp/hold/press one's hankyto one's mouth/nose/forehead.
So as to become or reach:indicating a terminal state resulting from an action.
His face was beatento a pulp.
I sang my babyto sleep.
Whisk the mixtureto a smooth consistency.
So as to bring about or elicit (an effect or outcome).
He made several bad-taste jokesto groans from the audience.
I tried complaining, but it wasto no effect.
To everyone's great relief, the tuneless carol singers finally ceased their warbling.
Used after an adjective to indicate its application.
similarto ...,relevantto ...,pertinentto ...,I was niceto him,he was cruelto her,I am usedto walking.
Indicating a degree or level reached.
It wasto a large extent true.
We manufacture these partsto a very high tolerance.
This gauge is accurateto a second.
My car dos 25 milesto the gallon.
Used to describe what something consists of or contains.
Anyone could do this job; there's nothingto it.
There's a lot of senseto what he says.
The name has a nice ringto it.
There are 100 penceto the pound.
Denotes the end of a range.
It takes 2to 4 weeks to process typical applications.
With Godto friend (with God as a friend); with The Devilto fiend (with the Devil as a foe); lambs slaughteredto lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice); took herto wife (took her as a wife); was soldto slave (was sold as a slave).
In the sense of "as a", it is afossil word(Standard English only), found usually only in obsolete set phrases like: "to take a womanto wife", "to have someoneto friend", "to have somethingto birthright" etc. In northern dialects,(clarification of this definition is needed.) where it is rare but still in common use, it is often used in combination withwith.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Finnish:expressed with the case of the headword, oftenillative orallative case;(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. andnachhause/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)
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Andrea Tyler and Vyvyan Evans, "Spatial particles of orientation", inThe Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 2003, 0-521-81430 8
Xosé Lluis García Arias (2002–2004), “to (adjective)”, inDiccionario general de la lengua asturiana [General Dictionary of the Asturian Language] (in Spanish), Editorial Prensa Asturiana,→ISBN
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 masculinetwā and the nominative/accusative femininetwāʀ (Westtvær). The neutertū (Westtvau) is preserved in the adverbitu.
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
...ðā ðā hǣðenan āhēowon þæt trēow mid ormǣtre blisse, þæt hit brastliende sāhtō ðām hālgan were, hetelīċe swiðe. Þā worhte hē onġēan ðām hrēosendum trēowe þǣs Hǣlendes rōde tācn, and hit ðǣrrihte ætstōd, wende ðā onġēan, and hrēas underbæc, and fornēan offēoll ðā ðe hit ǣr forcurfon.
Then the heathens cut down the tree with great joy, so that, rustling, it felltowards the holy man very violently. Then he made the sign of the Savior's cross to the falling tree, and it immediately stood still, turned around, and fell backwards, and almost fell upon those who had previously cut it.
There was an immensely great war between the Cretans and the Athenians. And the Cretans won a grim victory, and they took all the most noble of the Athenian children and gave them to the Minotaur, who was half man and half lion, for himto eat.
Should not betoo wrathful, nortoo hasty in words, nortoo weak warrior, nortoo careless, nortoo fearful, nortoo joyful, nortoo eager for money, nor evertoo 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”, inSłownik 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. Wojnato wojna. ―Our losses are minimal but some casualties are inevitable. Waris war.
(used in if-constructions)No, ale rozkazto rozkaz. Nie mnie podważać. ―Well, but an orderis an order. Not for me to question.
Parę razy mi się udało. Z jednąto nawet bardzo. ―I have succeeded a couple of times. With oneit 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 ścianachto ona była królową i musiała mieć królewskie wejście. ―Within these walls,it was herwho 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 hadquite 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, dlategoto 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. Palito 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 toSłownik 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]
^Ida Kurcz (1990), “to”, inSłownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume605, Kraków; Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 2
“TO I”, inElektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century],09.07.2008
“TO II”, inElektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century],09.07.2008
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, published1867,page31
It is a common verb in Yoruba names affirming the worthiness of entities like theorisha. (Ex.Ògúntósìn(“A Yoruba name meaning, "Ogun is worthy of being worshipped."”)).
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