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This is what I wrote:

I found the inspiration and energy to get stuck into old todos that were being consistently procrastinated.

I believe this is an incorrect usage of the verb "procrastinated" but I wanted to focus on the "todos" that my procrastination had caused me to avoid, rather than on my procrastination.

Or am I wrong and is this perfectly good grammar?

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  • Ya caint go procastinatin anybody anything.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 13:30
  • The plural of todo is todos, just like the plural of car is cars.
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 13:50
  • thanks Reg, "todos" looks funny though :)
    – Jeffrey Kemp
    Commented Nov 3, 2014 at 12:06

2 Answers 2

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Procrastinate is a slightly different kind of verb -- you can say it is internally transitive.

It never takes an object.

The meaning is usually "to delay action" or "to postpone action" -- in any case, "action" is part of the meaning, and is the internal object.

As such, the object is within and the transition, too, is within the word. It's a package deal.

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  • As a matter of fact, MW and other dictionaries say that 'procrastinate' is both transitive and intransitive. merriam-webster.com/dictionary/procrastinate
    – user66974
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 13:56
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    My 1993 reprint of the 1961 'Webster's Third New International Dictionary lists it as both transitive and intransitive. However, the only citation for the intransitive usage is from W H Prescott (died 1859). The 1989 Second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary also lists the transitive usage, but the most recent citation is dated 1871.
    – tunny
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 16:35
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This is incorrect usage. 'Procrastinate' can be used only intransitively. Incidentally, there is no indirect object in your sentence.

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  • 1
    Hi tunny, can you please provide reference to support your statement.
    – user66974
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 13:28
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    There are no citations for transitive 'procrastinate' in either the British National Corpus or the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The latest citation in the Corpus of Historical American English is dated 1889. The entry in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (9th edition) gives the verb only as intransitive.
    – tunny
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 13:43

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