one-on-one vs. one-to-one

[jokaec1]

Is this private lesson "one-on-one" or "one-to-one"?

In AmE, are they both correct? If so, which one is more common?

 

[Skrej]

Both are acceptable, and widely used. In your context, 'one-on-one' might be more common, but I'd have to consult a corpus to verify.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would use one-on-one.

 

[emsr2d2]

I would use "one-to-one" (BrE). However, I hear other BrE speakers using "one-on-one", but less frequently.

 

[Eckaslike]

I would use "one-to-one" as well (BrE). "One-on-one" sounds like a fight e.g."They took each other on, one-on-one".

Versus, "They held a one-to-one peer mentoring meeting".

 

[MikeNewYork]

Different contexts.

 

[Skrej]

AmE uses one-on-one in both a confrontational sense, or a face-to-face sense, so one-on-one meetings, lessons, calls, etc. occur widely in AmE.


I checked the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and it shows 'one-on-one' with approximately a 3:1 ratio over 'one-to-one'.

However, that includes all usages of 'one-on-one' and does not distinguish between the confrontation meaning versus the face to face meaning. I'm not sure how to make it distinguish meaning, but looking at context results, the two uses of 'one-on-one' seem to be about equal.

Ergo, I'm guessing that the 'face-to-face' meaning of 'one-on-one' and 'one-to-one- are much closer, but still favoring one-on-one.

Freq. results for 'one-on-one' = 1891 (both meanings)
Freq. results for 'one-to-one' = 484

So if roughly 1/2 (just a quick visual estimate, could well be higher or lower) of the one-on-one contexts represent the face-to-face aspect, then the two are closer, but still favor one-on-one.

To clarify, by face-to-face, I probably should have said something like personal 1:1 meetings. It wouldn't literally have to be in person.

 

[MikeNewYork]

The phrase "one-on-one" does not indicate the contextual setting. It merely indicates that there are only two people involved.

 

[Eckaslike]

Interesting difference! To me, in BrE, which one you use always indicates the setting.

"One-to-one" always means a meeting in person with someone else, and "one-on-one" always means a fight between two people.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Another BrE/AmE difference.