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Which of the following sentences is correct?

I am thinking to invest in stocks.
I am thinking investing into stocks.

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16  
Neither is correct. – Marcin Jun 20 '11 at 18:45

5 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

I wouldn't use either one; I'd say "I'm considering investing in stocks". One does not "invest into" anything (in my experience). The first sounds at best somewhat stilted.

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The fact that you would use the word considering in the first place doesn't really have any bearing on OP's question, which is about correct use of the word thinking. And here's an NGram link showing that investing into (whole countries, and other large-scale sectors) has become very much more common in recent decades...ngrams.googlelabs.com/… – FumbleFingers Jun 22 '11 at 21:53
up vote 20 down vote

Your first sentence is a fairly common structure, but it is somewhat informal, to say the least. I would not recommend non-native speakers experimenting with such non-standard forms.

The second sentence is simply ungrammatical.

The standard phrasing is...

I am thinking of investing in stocks.

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3  
Just to clarify for the OP - there are two changes needed. You need "of" between "thinking" and a gerund, such as "investing"; and we say "investing in", not "investing into" – MT_Head Jun 20 '11 at 17:52
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@FumbleFingers I'm sorry to sound contentious, I don't know any other way to say this: Please justify why you said that the first sentence was a fairly common structure. Where is it common? The answer here should be that neither sentence is correct, and that the final sentence of your response is in fact the correct way of phrasing the question. I just can't imagine saying it in any other way than what you suggested. – Feral Oink Jun 20 '11 at 20:06
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@Peter Shor: It's commonplace here in South East UK "Estuary English". I recognise it as somewhat informal and non-standard, but I don't fret too much about it being bad grammar. And I think anyone who wants to make out a case for that difference in meaning (as opposed to what it tells you of the speaker's verbal flexibility) is away with the fairies. – FumbleFingers Jun 21 '11 at 0:05
2  
@Feral Oink: You must understand that not all matters linguistic are settled by saying "that is wrong and this is right". As @Peter Shor points out, within the context of some dialects, OP's first sentence is quite acceptable - and possibly even to be preferred. Language is what people say, not what grammarians think they should say even if no-one actually does. – FumbleFingers Jun 21 '11 at 0:10
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@FumbleFingers: I don't think Feral was necessarily trying to be overly prescriptivist (hopefully I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth!), but rather that "I am thinking to invest in stocks" really does sound horribly ungrammatical in many dialects. (I had no idea anybody would ever say that: before this thread, if I'd seen you writing it, I'd have immediately assumed you weren't a native speaker.) – grautur Jun 21 '11 at 5:58
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up vote 6 down vote

When you are considering a possibility or advantages of doing something, you use think of.

He was thinking of becoming a zoologist.
I am thinking of investing my money.
I am thinking of investing in stocks.

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up vote 2 down vote

"I am thinking investing into stocks" needs a second part to make it grammatically valid. For example:

  • What's up, John? You seem absorbed.
  • I am thinking investing into stocks is a risky thing nowadays. I'll cancel the deal.

Which is contracted from "thinking that/[of] how investing...".

But, in general, there are better choices to express the same meaning.

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+1 for correctly figuring out just about the only context where OP's second example could be grammatical! – FumbleFingers Jun 22 '11 at 21:56
up vote 1 down vote

Funny, I had thought it was

"I am thinking about investing in stocks."

But maybe that's too colloquial?

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So far as I'm aware, thinking of and thinking about are both perfectly standard English, neither being any more 'colloquial' than the other. – FumbleFingers Jun 22 '11 at 21:47

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