Meaning
The phrase “attend to sb/sth” means to give your attention, care, or service to someone or something. It often implies dealing with a matter or looking after a person’s needs.
Common Uses
- In healthcare: A nurse attends to patients.
- In customer service: The manager will attend to your complaint.
- In daily tasks: I need to attend to some urgent emails.
Example Sentences
- Please wait a moment—I’m attending to a customer.
- The doctor attended to the injured hiker immediately.
- She couldn’t go out until she had attended to all her chores.
- He promised to attend to the issue first thing tomorrow.
Grammar Notes
“Attend to” is a transitive phrasal verb, so it must be followed by an object (a person or thing). You cannot say “I’ll attend” if you mean “I’ll deal with it”—you must say “I’ll attend to it.”
Formal in tone; more common in professional or written English than casual speech.