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I am confused about how to use "not to mention". Does it take to infinitive or bare infinitive?

In the 3rd Practice Test of the Official Guide of SAT, there is the 38th question. Here I quote from the passage:

For centuries, cats have guarded this famous museum, [ridding] it of mice, rats, and other rodents that could damage the art, not to mention 【38】scared off visitors.

The choices of this question are:

A. scared
B. scaring
C. scare
D. have scared.

The Official Guide has offered the key, which is C.

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  • Hello and welcome. It helps the community to see the context you're working with. I've added some context based on your comments to Miztli's answer. Feel free to edit it to your liking.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 23:12
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    @Cascabel Ridding looks fine there. It expands on what the author meant by guarding the museum.
    – Lawrence
    Commented May 19, 2017 at 2:18
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    @Cascabel Ah. :)
    – Lawrence
    Commented May 19, 2017 at 2:54
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    @Cascabel I've gotten rid of it as it's not germane to the question.
    – Lawrence
    Commented May 19, 2017 at 3:00

2 Answers 2

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The sentence in full is saying

...rodents that could damage the art, not to mention they [the rodents] could scare off visitors.

Thus, we see that "scare" is correct, as it is parallel to "damage".

It's a rather awkward sentence regardless though. Who writes these English sample sentences, anyways?

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  • Indeed. Selecting (b) scaring would change the sense of the sentence to imply that it's the cats that scare off visitors. Not as plausible, but still grammatically correct. +1 for "parallel".
    – Lawrence
    Commented May 19, 2017 at 2:29
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Neither. It usually requires a noun and so when used with verbs it can take a gerund/present participle (i.e. an -ing form). Thus:

He liked singing and acting, not to mention playing the bassoon!

However, a more natural phrasing might use a clause with a finite verb introduced by "that" (which is often accompanied by "the fact"):

He sings, he dances, not to mention (the fact) that he acts, too!

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  • But in the 3rd Practice Test of the Official Guide of SAT, there is the 38th question. Here I quote from the passage: "For centuries, cats have guarded this famous museum, riddling it of mice, rats, and other rodents that could damage the art, not to mention 【38】scared off visitors."
    – J.Liu
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 21:16
  • The choices of this question are: A. scared B. scaring C. scare D. have scared. The Official Guide has offered the key, which is C.
    – J.Liu
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 21:18
  • Hm, yes, it's something that can be quite dependent on context. Nevertheless, in that example, "scared" is a finite verb. By the way, are you aware there is a separate stack exchange for second-language learners of English? Here: ell.stackexchange.com
    – Miztli
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 21:21
  • OG has explained that it created parallelism with "could damage". Rodents that could damage...not to mention [could] scare off...
    – J.Liu
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 21:27
  • In such cases it would indeed take a bare rather than to-infinitive due to ellipsis (or parallelism, as you/OG call it). Thank you for providing further examples.
    – Miztli
    Commented Apr 18, 2017 at 21:34

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