Prepositions – Insert To vs Insert At: Correct Usage

prepositions

Which is correct or most preferred?

insert the item at the beginning of the list

or

insert the item to the beginning of the list

Best Answer

Just between the two examples, insert at is the more common.

It would typically be used in a technical context.

Here are three examples from Microsoft.

Text.Insert:

Arguments    Description
offset                  The index to insert at.

ParameterBindingRulesCollection.Insert Method:

Parameters

  • index
    Type: System.Int32
     
    index to insert at.

ImmutableArray.Insert Method (Int32, T):

item  
      Type: T
      The item to insert at the start of the array.

And an example from Mozilla:

The Range.insertNode() method inserts a node at the start of the Range.

The new node is inserted at the start boundary point of the Range.

As somebody who's worked a long time in the technical field, inserting items at the beginning of a list sounds natural to me.

However, if you're not talking about a specific list location, but a list in general, it would be more common to say:

Insert the item into the list.

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