"on her eye" OR "to her eye"

[Tom]

Hello Everybody

Which One Of The Following Sentences Is Correct?

He Put The Damp Cloth On Her Eye.
He Put The Damp Cloth To Her Eye.

Thanks In Advance

Tom

[Alan]

Hi Tom,

Both these phrasal forms have the idea of positioning in your sentences. These verbs can also be used of coiurse in a figurative sense but let's stay with the literal use.

Put on has the sense of place on with the idea of impose.

Put to has a less direct sense and indicates apply with the idea of bringing towards.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Have a Break!

[TOM]

THANK YOU ALAN

BUT IF WE SAY THIS WAY:

HE PUT THE DAMP CLOTH ----------HER SORE EYE(WHAT WOULD YOU PREFER... TO OR ON? OR BOTH WOULD BE SAME?

THANKS
TOM

[Tom]

Dear Alan
What happened?
Got angry?

Please continue the discussion.
Are the sentences same?

Now waiting impatiently

Tom

[Yankee]

My goodness, Tom! Your last post sounds a little aggressive.

I would say that using the word "on" would be best to talk about direct contact with the sore eye.

There is less sense of contact if you use the word "to" .

Does that help your impatience?

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tom]

I apologize.
I did not mean to be aggressive------I am sorry again .
I just needed to teach my students prepositions and I had to hold back my answer because I needed confirmation.

Thank you a lot.
ps: Yes, it did help.