look back at/to someone

[allthewayanime]

Which is the correct preposition after look back : at or to someone?

e.g. He was looking back at/to her.

My English teacher told me that to look back at someone - the person is the focus of the look and to look back to someone - the place where that person is, is the focus of the look.

 

[bhaisahab]

Which is the correct preposition after look back : at or to someone?

e.g. He was looking back at/to her.

My English teacher told me that to look back at someone - the person is the focus of the look and to look back to someone - the place where that person is, is the focus of the look.

We "look at someone" so we "look back at someone".

 

[allthewayanime]

We "look at someone" so we "look back at someone".

So the statement above is wrong?

 

[AlexAD]

Bhai is as usual sharp at his answers :up:

 

[Barb_D]

The phrase "look back to" is used to mean "think about something in your past."

I look back to how I though in the 1990s, when things seemed so hopeless, and can hardly believe my good fortune now.

I look back to Martha Zippergeist, who I knew as a child and as an adult, and to how she was able to take her passion for saving old homes into a thriving restoration busiess, and I think that nothing is impossible if you have ambition and courage!

So it is POSSIBLE to "look back to" a person, but not to mean that you turn your head and look at them behind you.