Grammar – ‘The Key to My Room’ vs ‘The Key of My Room’

grammarpossessivesprepositional-phrasesprepositions

To. Vs of

  • I am looking for the key of my room.

  • I am looking for the key to my room.

I have just known that the second is right and the first is wrong. However, sometimes it is confusing in a lot of situations to discern what the right one is.

Is there any rule in regard to the usage of to and of, particularly when we want to describe the belongings or possessions of something?!

Do I have to say

  • the damage to my house, or the damage of my house

  • the door to my room, or the door of my room

  • the password to my account, or the password of my account?

Best Answer

I have studied four Indo-European languages in addition to my native English. If there are any rules on which prepositions are proper in which situations, they are not easily discerned or explicated in any of those languages. In English, the predominant preposition relating to accessibility seems to be "to."

So "door to that room," "key to that lock," and "password to that account" are all idiomatic. However, "door of that room," "key for that lock," and "password for that account" are also idiomatic.

That quasi-rule about "to" being associated with accessibility has no apparent relevance to the phrase "damage to," but "to" is idiomatic although sometimes "damage in" will be idiomatic.

EDIT: Although "the key of that lock" does not sound euphonius, "that lock's key" sounds perfectly natural. Prepositions are weird.

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