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Am I right in thinking it does not make sense to say

someone will connect to another one.

Would the correct sentence be

someone will connect someone/something to another

or

someone will be connected to another one.

This is driven from my instinct so I have no idea how to prove it.

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  • What sort of "connection", or relationship are you talking about here? Could you supply a sentence within context please?
    – WS2
    Commented Feb 23, 2019 at 21:37
  • sure. I am a teacher talking to my students. hey students I will connect to you wherever you are (for example through internet). @WS2
    – MohammadReza Hosseini
    Commented Feb 23, 2019 at 21:49
  • You may wish to be more specific about the method of connection. However if you are looking for a term that covers email, Twitter, WhatsApp etc then "connect to" is probably as good as any. However if the connection is intended to be interactive, as opposed to your simply sending information, then "connect with" would seem appropriate.
    – WS2
    Commented Feb 24, 2019 at 17:41

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Mohammad, welcome! It is grammatically correct. You can noncontroversially say, for instance, "this power cord will connect to this adapter". However, "connect to" sounds unusual when it refers to people, where one would more typically use "connect with".

There is a discussion at “Connect to” vs. “Connect with”: Which is better? which highlights this point. Some participants mention that connect to refers to physical connection, while connect with is more virtual. This is not universally accepted, though. There are various examples of both in the thread.

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  • as you may have noticed by now, all the examples in the link which you provided in your answer are using "connected" that sounds 100 percent natural. another important bold distinction between my example and what you provided is that all of them have a main verb but mine doesn't. in the link you provided the first example has "remains", the second has "saw" the third one has the verb "were" and finally the forth one has the verb "feel". but "we will connect to you" has no main verb other than "connect" and this doesn't sound natural.
    – MohammadReza Hosseini
    Commented Feb 24, 2019 at 5:02
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I am not an English teacher or English major in college, but, am a person 70 years of age, and I'm appalled that people are now using the phrase, for example: "an officer arrested a suspect in connection to the crime".

In all of my years of listening closely to what sounds correct, and what I've heard all of my previous English teachers say, it seems 100% grammatically correct to say: "in connection with". Connected to something means: literally attached, in the physical sense. Therefore, no person can be physically attached to a crime.

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    It's great if you can cite sources (dictionaries, books of usage, etc.).
    – Maverick
    Commented Jan 27, 2020 at 13:52
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"we will connect to you" is understood, though not native English. For example, this is typically something you might hear from an Indian speaking English. The way it is normally phrased is "we will contact you".

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  • Please make sure you understand the OP's question (and relevant comments) before answering. The context (from a comment, not from the question, unfortunately) is "hey students I will connect to you wherever you are".
    – CJ Dennis
    Commented Jan 27, 2020 at 9:03

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