The preposition "to" is an all-purpose one which is used when the speaker is unsure what the correct preposition is. A similar example is "compared with" vs "compared to". "With" is not the only preposition where "to" is an alternative, indicating that it is used in an all-purpose way. The fact that "to" is used indiscriminately suggests that "with" is correct. The use of "to" in this way is fairly recent, and English texts from the past use only "with" (and other prepositions "to" substitutes for today). In the media you often either see or hear "to" when you expect another preposition. --- On Fri, 29/1/10, Neil Maloney <maloneyn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: From: Neil Maloney <maloneyn@xxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: atw: Re: Correct usage conundrum: "Match to" vs "Match with" To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Received: Friday, 29 January, 2010, 2:08 PM I've always used "matched with" when there is a range of possible matches, e.g. matched my green shirt with my grey trousers, but "matched to" when there is one only match or when the closest possible match is required, e.g. matched the DNA found at the scene of the crime to the defendant's record in the police DNA database. From the use of the indefinite article in the screen ("an offer") I would continue to use "match with". If there was a single offer only ("the offer") I would use "match to". Neil. ----- Original Message ----- From: Anthony D'Silva To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 1:33 PM Subject: atw: Correct usage conundrum: "Match to" vs "Match with" Hi All, Recently, I came across a UI screen which looked like this: Notifications Receive e-mail notifications when your bid is: <checkbox1> Accepted <checkbox2> Rejected <checkbox3> Matched with an offer <checkbox4> Not matched with an offer I wasn't sure if it would be better to use “matched to” instead of “matched with” in <checkbox3> and <checkbox4>. I tried googling for answers and found that both “matched to” and “matched with” are widely used (and in some cases it was just “matched”, as in “you will receive notification when your bid matches an offer”). The fact that I am not a native speaker of English makes it all the more difficult to determine the correct usage. Any thoughts on the correct usage? Thanks in advance, Regards, Anthony __________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo!7: Catch-up on your favourite Channel 7 TV shows easily, legally, and for free at PLUS7. www.tv.yahoo.com.au/plus7