ask to

[mehdihas]

Hi there,
In the following sentence:
"In this TV show, a man or woman asks questions to three people of the opposite sex."
Is it correct to use "to" in the sentence? If yes, what does it mean "to ask questions to"?
Thanks.

[BobK]

Hi there,
In the following sentence:
"In this TV show, a man or woman asks questions to three people of the opposite sex."
Is it correct to use "to" in the sentence? If yes, what does it mean "to ask questions to"?
Thanks.

'... a man or woman puts questions to three people of the opposite sex'
You could also use 'asks questions of', but this is dubious for two reasons:

• the repeated 'of' is not very elegant
• it's a bit dated*, and may not mean much to some audiences

The words 'ask' and 'to' sometimes collocate in informal speech to abbreviate 'ask [s/o whether permission is granted for the speaker] to'. Example: 'The boy put his hand up and asked to leave the room'.

b
PS It crops up in old texts, folk songs for example: 'The men in the forest, they asked of me, Saying 'How many strawberries grow in the salt sea?'

[TheParser]

Hi there,

In the following sentence:
"In this TV show, a man or woman asks questions to three people of the opposite sex."
Is it correct to use "to" in the sentence? If yes, what does it mean "to ask questions to"?

Thanks.

NOT A TEACHER


(1) "May I ask you a question/ a favor?" = Good conversational

and written English.

(2) "May I ask a question/ a favor of you?" = Very formal and very

courteous conversational and written English.

(3) "May I ask a question to you?" IMHO, most Americans

feel the preposition is "wrong."

(4) "May I ask a favor to you?" IMHO, 100% of native speakers would

call this wrong.


The above is only my opinion.