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M.J. Hyland, who authored the acclaimed 2003 novel How the Light Gets In, is often praised to be a subtle and complex portrayer of human psychology.

What is wrong with the bolded construction and why? My gut bet would be that it should be replaced with 'praised as' but I want to be sure of the grammatical reason why this is incorrect.

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  • Homework doesn't work if you don't try to answer it yourself. What do you think is wrong with the phrase? Why?
    – Dan Bron
    Aug 8, 2015 at 16:33
  • Does praising the novel make it a subtle and complex portrayer of human psychology? Aug 8, 2015 at 16:59
  • @DanBron It's not a homework question but a real SAT test question. That part was marked incorrect. My gut bet would be that it should be replaced with 'praised as' but I want to be sure of the grammatical reason why this is incorrect. Aug 8, 2015 at 17:36
  • Perhaps "for being" instead of "to be".
    – Graffito
    Aug 8, 2015 at 20:05
  • The simple answer here is that, idiomatically, English permits "Hyland is praised as a subtle and complex portrayer" and "Hyland is praised for being a subtle and complex portrayer," but not "Hyland is praised to be a subtle and complex portrayer." As aparente001 observes in an answer below, usage of the verb praise determines correctness—and "praised to be" fails on that measure.
    – Sven Yargs
    Apr 4, 2017 at 6:40

1 Answer 1

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OR: often praised for being ....

The type of error in your SAT practice test sentence is in the realm of usage.

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