'Answer to Something' or 'Answer of Something'? Which One Is Correct? | Mastering Grammar

(Last Updated: 12 June 2024)

Answer to Something or Answer of Something: Which One Is Correct?

When we use the noun answer, it typically refers to a response to a question or problem. In this context, the preposition to should be used, rather than of, to indicate what the answer is in response to:

✅ What is the answer to this question?
❌ What is the answer of this question?

✅ Can you give me the answer to this crossword clue?
❌ Can you give me the answer of this crossword clue?

✅ Chris finally found the answer to the mystery that had been puzzling him for weeks.
❌ Chris finally found the answer of the mystery that had been puzzling him for weeks.

✅ Did you get an answer to your enquiry?
❌ Did you get an answer of your enquiry?

✅ If he could get that promotion, it would be the answer to all his financial worries.
❌ If he could get that promotion, it would be the answer of all his financial worries.

In each of the examples above, to is used to indicate what the answer responds to. Using the phrase answer to something, where answer is a noun, is the more common and idiomatic way of describing a response. 

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Examples from the Media

Food drives are not the answer to poverty and hunger. —Toronto Star (2021)

Mr Albanese gave a very simple answer to the question, defining a woman as 'an adult female'. —Daily Mail (2023)

Doctors and tests cannot always find the answers to legitimate ailments. —The Sydney Morning Herald (2014)

A Las Vegas real estate mogul and space exploration CEO is offering nearly $1 million in earthy [sic] riches for an answer to the age-old existential quandary. —New York Post (2021)

Recommended Further Reading

'Reply' or 'Reply to' Someone/Something?
'Respond' or 'Response'?

Real-World Examples of Misuse

(Source: Mastering Grammar for the HKDSE)

(Source: 英文文法精讀與練習)
(Also by the Same Author: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13)