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I want to talk to someone and make sure something is done. How to express this meaning using the word confirm? I'm not sure whether it should be confirm to sb or confirm with sb. Is there another way to say it?

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    Please make an effort to find an answer or some clues and let us know what you found. – Kris Jun 18 '15 at 6:53
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With is correct:

I'd like to confirm with you that you will finish the report by Thursday.

You can also request confirmation:

Please confirm that you'll finish the report by then.
I need your confirmation that you'll do it on time.

With this sense, you can also confirm something for someone:

Let me look at my calendar to confirm that for you.

That is, to act on their request for confirmation.

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I think there are three distinct meanings for "confirm":

  • "get confirmation from"

  • "give confirmation to"

  • "mutually reach a firm agreement from some more vague state"

I think all of them can use "with" (which can therefore sometimes be ambiguous). The second can also use "to".

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  • Regarding the first one, can you tell me which one is more correct or just correct: "I will confirm this by Tom", "I will confirm this with Tom". – Tarik Jun 1 '15 at 17:37
  • I would not say "confirm ... by", and if I heard it I would think the speaker was not a native English speaker. – Colin Fine Jun 1 '15 at 23:10
  • @ColinFine Is it correct to use from after confirm, e.g., I wanted to confirm it from experts? – user343802 Aug 25 '20 at 4:29
  • @user343802: that is clear, but not idiomatic. Normally I would say "with experts", and rely on the meaning of "expert" to select the first of my three meanings. If I wanted to avoid that ambiguity, I would say "get confirmation from experts". – Colin Fine Aug 25 '20 at 9:07
  • @ColinFine Many thanks. – user343802 Aug 25 '20 at 9:55

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