According to is a prepositional phrase used to show that information comes from a specific source. In English Grammar and Usage, it introduces reported facts, opinions, or statistics and helps you attribute them clearly.
According to is a prepositional phrase in English Grammar and Usage that signals source attribution. It tells the reader that the statement that follows comes from someone, something, or somewhere else, not from the writer directly.
The phrase usually comes before a noun phrase naming the source, such as a person, report, website, teacher, or textbook. You might write, "According to the survey, most students prefer online notes." The source is "the survey," and the sentence makes clear where the information came from.
This phrase is especially useful when you are reporting facts, summarizing research, or repeating an opinion without making it your own claim. It can introduce a direct quote, a paraphrase, or a summary. For example, "According to Maya, the meeting starts at 3" and "According to the article, pollution levels dropped last year" both use the same structure, but one reports a person and the other reports a text.
In grammar terms, according to works like a prepositional phrase, so it is followed by its object. That object is the source. The phrase does not mean "in agreement with" in the everyday sense here, which is a common confusion. In this course, the phrase is about attribution, not approval.
You will also see according to in writing where clarity matters, like news reports, academic paragraphs, and class summaries. It helps separate the writer's voice from the source's voice, which makes sentences easier to trust and easier to check.
According to matters because English Grammar and Usage is not just about building correct sentences, it is also about showing where information comes from. When you use this phrase well, you make your writing more precise and avoid sounding like you are claiming someone else's idea as your own.
It is one of the simplest ways to handle attribution in school writing. If you are summarizing a reading, citing a class source in a response, or reporting what a chart shows, according to gives you a clean way to introduce the source before the information.
It also helps you keep the writer's voice and the source's voice separate. That matters when you are writing about articles, research, interviews, or even classroom discussions. A sentence like "According to the author, the character changes after chapter 4" tells the reader that the claim belongs to the author, not necessarily to you.
This term also connects to sentence structure, because the placement of the phrase changes how the sentence flows. You need to know what follows it, how to punctuate it, and how it works with the rest of the clause so your sentence stays clear instead of clunky.
Keep studying English Grammar and Usage Unit 4
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According to begins with a preposition, so it fits into the course unit on how prepositions show relationships between words. The preposition is doing more than pointing to time or place here. It introduces a source, which is a different kind of relationship, but it still behaves like a preposition in sentence structure.
Source
The word after according to is the source, which is the person, text, report, or authority being cited. If you can identify the source, you can usually tell whether the sentence is reporting a fact, an opinion, or data. That helps when you summarize readings or check whether a claim is coming from evidence or from the writer's own voice.
Attribution
According to is one of the most direct ways to show attribution in writing. Attribution tells the reader who is responsible for a statement, idea, or finding. In grammar practice, this helps you avoid vague reporting and makes your paraphrases and summaries easier to trace back to the original source.
Adverbial Prepositional Phrase
According to often functions like an adverbial prepositional phrase because it modifies the whole clause by telling you where the information comes from. It is not describing a noun the way an adjectival phrase would. Instead, it sets the frame for the statement that follows.
A quiz item might ask you to identify according to as a prepositional phrase or explain what the phrase is doing in a sentence. On sentence-structure questions, you may need to name the source that follows it and decide whether the phrase is introducing a quote, a paraphrase, or a reported claim.
In writing assignments, you use it when you summarize an article, report survey results, or explain what a speaker said. If a passage says, "According to the study, students who reviewed notes scored higher," you should be able to point out that the study is the source and that the sentence is attributing the claim instead of making it directly.
According to is the common phrase used for attribution and source reporting. According with is much less common and usually means to agree or be in harmony with something, like a rule or a standard. In most English Grammar and Usage work, if you are citing a source, according to is the form you want.
According to is a prepositional phrase that introduces a source, so the information that follows is attributed, not presented as the writer's own claim.
The phrase can introduce a direct quote, a paraphrase, or a summary, which makes it useful in summaries, reports, and response writing.
The word or phrase after according to is the source, and identifying that source is the main grammar move you make with this term.
This phrase often works like an adverbial prepositional phrase because it modifies the whole statement by showing where the information comes from.
If you use according to well, your writing sounds clearer and more accountable, especially when you are reporting facts, opinions, or research.
According to is a prepositional phrase that introduces a source for the information in the sentence. It tells the reader that what follows comes from a person, text, report, or other reference. In grammar terms, the phrase is about attribution, not agreement.
According to is usually treated as a prepositional phrase because it includes the preposition according plus the word to and then takes a source as its object. In sentence analysis, you would label the whole expression together. The source after it is what completes the phrase.
Put it before the source and then follow it with the claim or information you are reporting. For example, "According to the article, recycling rates increased." You can also use it with people, like "According to my teacher, the essay is due Friday."
According to can introduce a quote, but it does not require quotation marks unless you are using the exact words of the source. If you are paraphrasing or summarizing, you still use according to to show where the idea came from. That makes it useful for both direct and indirect reporting.