to vs in, of

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Basically there are three parts to a typical presentation: the beginning, the middle and the end (or introduction, body and conclusion).
I am not sure why “to” is used here. How about “in” or “of”? Are they good, too?

2

“to” sounds best to me. “in” is tolerable, but “of” doesn’t seem right. I don’t have a good explanation. After all, one could say “the three parts of a typical presentation are…”. The construction “there are three parts…” seems to alter things.

3

Thanks Dozy.
I don’t know why but my mind force me to think that “in” and “of” are good and “to” is wrong despite the fact that I know it is wrong.
I would like to hear more opinions/helps about this.

4

‘To’ is the best option… the parts belong to the presentation.

5

Thanks,
Is “to” here a short form of “belong to”?

6

Although the parts do obviously belong to the whole, “to” is not literally short for “belong to”, and in fact “there are three parts belong to a typical presentation” is ungrammatical. If anything it would have to be “belonging to”, but there’s no reason to say that when “to” works fine by itself.