"from A to B" or "to B from A"
Which expression is more customary? Are their situations where one would be favored over the other?
Edit:
Sorry for making the question unclear. My motivation for this question came from reading economics and finance related articles online.
As an example, there seem to be two ways of expression:
The S&P 500 Index has risen slightly to the 2700s from the 2400s a year ago.
The S&P 500 Index has risen from the 2400s a year ago to the 2700s.
My examples are not good, but I hope they illustrate my idea.
Of course, discussions on such a difference in style of expression can be extended more generally.
Solution 1:
The common expression is "from A to B," not "to B from A." But I'm not sure that's what you're asking. I'm not sure if you actually mean "A" and "B" or if you are using "A" and "B" as stand-ins. If the latter, then both ways are acceptable, albeit with slightly different effect.
Examples:
- I went from my mom's house to the store.
The above sentence emphasizes the journey itself.
- I went to the store from my mom's house.
The above sentence emphasizes where I left from rather than the journey. I'm clarifying that I went there from my mom's house, not from somewhere else.
Solution 2:
According to Google Books Ngram Viewer, both expressions are used, but from A to B is more common.
You can talk about going between two different places (or from one idea to another)—and then going back again. But when you talk about the "forward" direction, it's more common to start with A and work down the alphabet.
For instance:
We went from A to B, then from B to C, returned to B, and finally went back from B to A.
Although you could start by saying that you went from B to A, it's not an intuitive progression.
However, you could use it specifically if you wanted to call out something unusual:
Rather than doing things in the proper order, I instead went from B to A.
It's similar to naturally saying here and there instead of there and here, or saying this and that instead of that and this.
Update: Thanks to a comment, I was actually addressing the wrong specific question.
Somehow, I had misread to B from A as from B to A.
My answer about "direction" still holds true, however. It's much more common to put the first letter in the alphabet first.
Interestingly, another Google Books Ngram Viewer query doesn't produce enough hits for to B from A to register at all.
Changing tack, Google Scholar shows 562,000 hits for from A to B and shows only 1,120 hits for to B from A.
Further, of those 1,120 hits, only a small percentage are legitimate hits—the others being false positives such as "sends 100 packets to B. From a load" and "transmission to B from a given one."
What this means is that to B from A is even less common than from B to A.
It's been suggested that A and B are meant to be taken metaphorically rather than literally. If so, then the question should be edited to clarify.
However, the same type of analysis applies. The use of from / to is more common than to / from.