According tomeans ‘as reported by’ or ‘as stated by’ and refers to an opinion which is not the speaker’s opinion.According tousually occurs in front position. It is commonly followed by a noun phrase and sometimes by a clause:
According toJeff, the film starts at 7.30.
According tothe instructions, you’ll need to buy some glue.
The government,according toa poll taken last month, may lose the next election.
We often useaccording toin formal contexts to refer to official evidence such as statistics or reports:
According toa recent report by the Department of Health, most people still do not take enough exercise.
According toalso means ‘depending on’ or ‘in agreement with’:
They take a test and are then put in to groupsaccording totheir ability.
The rents are high but they varyaccording towhether you want a garden.
Typical error
We only useaccording towhen we refer to an opinion from someone else or somewhere else. When we talk about our opinion, we use phrases such as ‘in my opinion’ or ‘in our view’:
In my opinion, they were not very polite.
Not:According to me…
See also:
Opinion