# EN: comply, compliant + with / to - preposition



## braz

Hello everybody,

I happen to live with an English guy in the UK and I was talking with him lately about homologation and conformity and during the discussion he said: "They have to comply to the standards"... I have always been convinced, and did not find anything about that on WR, that it was to comply WITH something... 

Is "to comply to" really English (BE or AE)? And if so, when do you use it compared to "To comply with"?

Cheers,
Braz


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

As far as I know, it is comply WITH.


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## Padraig

_Comply with._ There has been some erosion of standards in recent years.


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## floise

braz,

He might be confusing 'conform to' and 'comply with'. (conform can be used with both 'to' and 'with', actually)

I am familiar with 'comply with' only. However, an exact-word google search turns up a lot of hits using 'comply to'!! 

floise


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## George French

Padraig said:


> _Comply with._ There has been some erosion of standards in recent years.


 
Some?


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## liulia

*Comply with*, definitely!


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## George French

floise said:


> However, an exact-word google search turns up a lot of hits using 'comply to'!!



You have just added one! Does it make it any more acceptable?


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## floise

Hi George French,

It does not make it acceptable. Google is far from being what I base correctness on, but it is an indication of trends in language, like it or not.

floise


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## Scherle

As far as I know, it should be with since with is use as a function word to indicate a participant in an action, transaction, or arrangement.


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## Teafrog

Padraig said:


> _Comply with._ There has been some erosion of standards in recent years.


Yes, it _is_ comply with, and yes again standards have been eroding, but that's the nature of standards, they keep going downwards, until entirely new ones come on the scene (natural selection/progression?)


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## Padraig

leigh1802, you may be right, but those who developed the language were probably not aware of such rules.


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## hoshiko

Hello everybody!

A question corollary to that of Braz:
Is it "compliant to" or "compliant with"?

I'd tend to think it's "with", but a native's answer would be better.

Thanks in advance (yeah, I know it's a French saying ).


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## floise

Compatible with or following guidelines, specifications, rules, or laws. The browser is standards compliant.The workplace is *compliant with* the Americans with Disabilities Act.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/compliant

floise


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## George French

Google hits:

"Compliant to" 771,000
"Compliant with" 4,240,000

Other similar searches give a similar ratio. These numbers change on re-run!

Looks like a matter of choice? What read/sounds better.

I am a *to* man... out of step as usual!


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## NewAmerica

liulia said:


> *Comply with*, definitely!



So the speaker (Bruce Aylward, Canadian physician) made a mistake when he said "comply to the others" rather than "comply with the others"?


*********************************
I'm not avoiding question, but the purpose was what works. We're in a global emergency. Are the things we can take from here that we *comply to the others?*

Source: Press Conference of WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19 Date: February 24th, 2020 (evening)
https://www.who.int/docs/default-so...ion-press-conference-script-english-final.pdf


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## Locape

Apparently yes, he made a mistake, but it says in the above posts that a lot of people do, and may confuse 'conform to/with' and 'comply with' (see post # 4).


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## NewAmerica

Thank you.


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