The English Oracle

Which is correct: "confirm with somebody" or "confirm to somebody"?

--------------------------------------------------
Rise to the top 3% as a developer or hire one of them at Toptal: https://topt.al/25cXVn
--------------------------------------------------

Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Isolated

--

Chapters
00:00 Which Is Correct: &Quot;Confirm With Somebody&Quot; Or &Quot;Confirm To Somebody&Quot;?
00:21 Accepted Answer Score 11
00:51 Answer 2 Score 6
01:11 Thank you

--

Full question
https://english.stackexchange.com/questi...

--

Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

--

Tags
#wordchoice #verbs #prepositions

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 11


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.




ANSWER 2

Score 6


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".