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So, I want to title a talk.

Which of these is the right usage and why?

"Web Development Paradigms and Djangoic approach to solve them"

OR

"Web Development Paradigms and Djangoic approach to solving them"

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Essentially this same question is covered here: english.stackexchange.com/questions/384/… – Chris Aug 20 '10 at 9:08
2  
One doesn't normally solve a paradigm. – delete Aug 20 '10 at 9:08
Shinto, Would you rather like me to use the word "dealing" then? – Lakshman Prasad Aug 20 '10 at 9:17
Incidentally, I'd say "Djangonic" rather than "Djangoic" - it reads better, and echoes "Pythonic" (even though there's an 'n' at the end of 'Python' and not of 'Django'). – Daniel Roseman Aug 20 '10 at 9:28
Daniel, Nice to see you here. I am waiting for some English expert to question, what Django has got to do with Python and why an 'n' has to be added to djangoic, to sound like pythonic :) – Lakshman Prasad Aug 20 '10 at 9:49
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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

The construction is typically "approach to [noun]". The gerund can be used in place of a noun here, as it can in many other situations.

The infinitive should not be used. It is something of a coincidence that the infinitive has the prepended word "to", and that "to" is the appropriate preposition to use after "approach" here.

So to be clear, the following is correct:

"Web Development Paradigms and Djangoic approach to solving them"

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Agree. It seems to me that the most common time you have a noun infinitive combination is when the noun is really the object of the verb: "miles to go", "heck to pay", "mountain to climb". In this sense, a pilot might speak of an approach to fly, which is very different from an approach to flying. – moioci Aug 21 '10 at 3:06
up vote 2 down vote

For me, the first (""Web Development Paradigms and Djangoic approach to solve them") is not possible, for the reason Noldorin gave. Also, it reads oddly without an article before "Djangoic".

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up vote 0 down vote

They are equivalently correct. But if you want to sound expensive and impressive, use the gerund form.

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Er, the gerund doesn't sound especially pretentious here. – ptomato Aug 20 '10 at 9:11

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