Admit vs admit to

[micaelo]

In the following sentences:
He admits to stealing the power drill
He admitted committing the crime
Is there any reason we use "admit to" in the first but simply "admit" in the second? Is there any difference? Could we just add it or omit it at will?Thank you

 

[apex2000]

In the following sentences:
He admits to stealing the power drill
He admitted committing the crime
Is there any reason we use "admit to" in the first but simply "admit" in the second? Is there any difference? Could we just add it or omit it at will?Thank you

Yes, you can leave it out in both the above sentences. Putting 'to' in makes it sound a bit clumsy but is not necessarily incorrect.
However, as in many cases it depends upon the context:

He did admit to it. Here there is a subtle difference. If I say 'he did admit it' you may not know what the 'it' refers to. Then 'he did admit to it' the 'to it' implies that you know what the 'to it' refers to. The difference is difficult to follow. In practice we would normally leave out the 'to'.