Prepositions/ to-from
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Message from praveen101 posted on 23-02-2017 at 09:01:59 (D | E | F)
Hello,
Can you help me please?
Regarding this sentence- 'I want to ask you a question.'
Instead, which one of the following is grammatically correct?
A) I want to ask a question to you?
B) I want to ask a question from you?
Thanks for any reply.
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Edited by lucile83 on 23-02-2017 13:02
Message from praveen101 posted on 23-02-2017 at 09:01:59 (D | E | F)
Hello,
Can you help me please?
Regarding this sentence- 'I want to ask you a question.'
Instead, which one of the following is grammatically correct?
A) I want to ask a question to you?
B) I want to ask a question from you?
Thanks for any reply.
-------------------
Edited by lucile83 on 23-02-2017 13:02
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from gerondif, posted on 23-02-2017 at 11:08:32 (D | E)
Hello
A is correct.
You speak, write, send a letter to somebody.
You ask a question to somebody but you ask a favour from somebody.
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from jashon, posted on 23-02-2017 at 11:47:33 (D | E)
Hello,
I think A is correct.
Ask question to somebody.
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Edited by lucile83 on 23-02-2017 13:03
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from razzor, posted on 23-02-2017 at 22:08:34 (D | E)
Good evening,
As a native English speaker myself, "I want to ask a question to you" does not sound natural.
I would say more spontaneously "I want to ask you a question".
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from jonquille, posted on 23-02-2017 at 22:27:36 (D | E)
Hello!
As another native English
speaker, I have to agree with razzor. I want to ask a question to you? is more of a translation from French.
In English, we don't need the preposition "to."
>I ask you a question.
>She wants to ask him a question.
>We asked them a question, but they didn't answer us.
>They are going to keep asking me questions, until I finally give them an answer!
Hope this helps!
jonquille
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from lucile83, posted on 24-02-2017 at 07:44:43 (D | E)
Hello,
It is said in this topic that 'I want to ask a question to you' is correct. That's true.
Razzor and jonquille are right as well to note that it is much less common than 'I want to ask you a question',which is more natural.
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from praveen101, posted on 24-02-2017 at 11:22:22 (D | E)
Thank you all for the beautiful explanation.
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from dimbiniainadimb, posted on 01-03-2017 at 07:19:08 (D | E)
Yes for sure A is right, if we have to choose between them. But I agree with Razzor and Jonquille
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from zilazila, posted on 06-03-2017 at 07:22:31 (D | E)
Hello,
I see that all native speakers, say, " 'I want to ask you a question.'
But, 'I want to ask a question to you', is correct also.
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Edited by lucile83 on 06-03-2017 07:25
Re: Prepositions/ to-from from phil512, posted on 06-03-2017 at 11:12:12 (D | E)
Hello,
+1 in favour of the short version without "to", certainly much more usual in spoken English.
Let me also refer to the Cambridge Dictionary :
Link
where you will read this : "May I ask you a question about your last job?
Altough they use "may" instead of "want to" (in no way the heart of the matter here), we do have another serious confirmation here, for the ones who would still have a doubt.
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