Learn English – “Cater to” vs. “cater towards”

grammaticalityprepositionsverbsword-choice

I've heard both "cater to" and "cater towards" used, but I was wondering which one was correct. For example:

The event's theme seemed to cater to the artistic crowd.

The event's theme seemed to cater towards the artistic crowd.

Are there rules for this? Which is correct?

Best Answer

You want cater to here. I don't think you cater toward something.

You could say something like,"The event's theme seemed geared toward the artistic crowd." (In this case, gear would have the meaning "to adjust or adapt so as to make suitable.")

(Definitions from The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition)

Related Solutions

Word Choice – ‘Toward’ or ‘Towards’: What Would a Native Speaker Use?

Right - American English favors "toward," and UK standard tends to add an 's.'

This also applies to "forward," "backward," etc. These are explained in more detail by Fowler, Merriam-Websters Dictionary of English Usage, et al.

Verb Agreement – Singular or Plural Verb in Mathematical Formulae (“Two and Two Make/Makes Four”)?

Singular and plural are both correct.

The singular form is also used because "two and two" is an arithmetic formula. The verb agreement in that case is with the formula as a single entity.

Two and two makes four.
Two plus two is four.
Four times four divided by two is
eight.

In your example in particular, Google indicates that the plural form occurs more often:

"two plus two make four" = 353K results
"two plus two makes four" = 77K results

And while Google hit counts are notoriously, the result is supported by Google Ngrams.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Word Choice – ‘Toward’ or ‘Towards’: What Would a Native Speaker Use?

Verb Agreement – Singular or Plural Verb in Mathematical Formulae (“Two and Two Make/Makes Four”)?

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