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Jigneshbharati Posted 6 years ago
Grammar

Home to vs of vs for

The Isle of Mulch was home to less than a 1000 people. I read the above in one of the lesson for year 3 on BBC bitesize.
Why can't we use "of or for" instead of "to" in "home to..."? Which sense of the preposition "to" is used here?

  

Top answer

"? Who said you can't use those? In order of usage, most used first, it's was home to, was home for, was home of By far the most frequently used is was home to .

— CalifJim

  • "?
  • Who said you can't use those?
  • In order of usage, most used first, it's was home to, was home for, was home of By far the most frequently used is was home to .
  • If you add 'the', the frequency is as follows: was the home of, was the home to, was the home for By far the most frequently used is was the home of .
  • If you add 'a', the frequency is as follows: was a home for, was a home of, was a home to By far the most frequently used is was a home for .
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2 Answers
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JigneshbharatiWhy can't we use "of or for" instead of "to" in "home to..."?

Who said you can't use those?

In order of usage, most used first, it's

was home to, was home for, was home of

By far the most frequently used is was home to.

If you add 'the', the frequency is as follows:

was the home of, was the h

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You got the right answer on WordReference.com. Every dictionary will treat the little words quite differently, and very few will have every possible use. The AHD has a couple of dozen entries for "to", and MW has a few less. The OED has 17 pages on "to". I suppose this use of "to" is like "the top to the jar", that belongs to it.

By the way, numbers take a comma ever

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