To or at page 10

[Rachel Adams]

Hello.

What do you use in BrE "Open your books at or to page 10"?

 

[jutfrank]

I say on. at is also good. to is wrong.

 

[Rachel Adams]

I say on. at is also good. to is wrong.

Interesting if "to" is possible in American English.

 

[GoesStation]

I say on. at is also good. to is wrong.

The OP asked about British English, but this is a good example of a noticeable difference between varieties. In American English, to is natural and at is possible. If not exactly wrong, on is at least odd.

They're all perfectly understandable though.

 

[jutfrank]

I've just thought about this more carefully.

The best preposition is at, because it's a preposition of position. Page 10 is the place in the book that you should locate.

on and to may be natural but they're not 'strictly' correct. If a speaker says to, she's thinking about opening as a kind of movement, similar to the instruction Go to page 10. If a speaker says on, she's thinking about the destination. The destination material is 'on' page 10.

So use at.

There's no difference between British and American English here.

 

[GoesStation]

Hearing a teacher say Open your books at page 10 in an American school would be odd enough that I'd assume the teacher was foreign born.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd say "to".

 

[Tarheel]

I would expect to hear:

Turn to page ten.

Admittedly, it's been a long time since I have been in a classroom.