to

A functional preposition

27 AUG 2026

0/5 word facts discovered

to

/tuː/, /tə/

preposition

used as a function word to indicate direction toward

preposition, a functional word that precedes infinitives in English or marks a destination

used as a function word to indicate direction toward

That was when he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Useless facts

The surprisingly eventful life of to
To began as the Old English tō, carrying the physical idea of movement toward something. That directional meaning eventually wandered into grammar: an expression resembling to take once conveyed movement toward an action—something closer to “for the purpose of taking.” As English lost many of its older word endings, to became the infinitive marker we use today.

The word also produced too. Its extra o distinguished a stressed form that developed meanings such as “in addition” and “more than enough.” Two, despite sounding identical, belongs to a separate numerical family. English speakers have also placed words between to and a verb since at least the fourteenth century, long before grammarians turned the split infinitive into a controversy.
Keith’s note
I thought to would be a boring word because it’s everywhere. I use it constantly without thinking about it: “I’m going to the store.” But once I looked into it, I was surprised by how much history was packed inside those two letters. It began with literal movement, evolved into a piece of grammatical machinery, produced too, and eventually became the center of an argument over split infinitives. Every time I think I’ve selected an ordinary word, it turns out the ordinary word has a story.
The Scrabble score is 2 points: T = 1 and O = 1.
2 letters and 1 syllable.
Its NATO spelling is Tango Oscar.
Its Morse code is − −−−—four consecutive dashes separated only by a letter break.
Its ordinary weak pronunciation is /tə/; the emphasized form is /tuː/.
To is approximately the third-most-common word in written English.
Its homophones are too and two.
English speakers have split infinitives since at least the fourteenth century.
The example sentence appears in Cereus & Limnic (2021). Read Cereus & Limnic

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