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I have confusion on parsing of following sentence...

"There is no reason to be depressed or give up simply because you will make a few wrong choices."

The sentence was captured from an article and the context are as below.

  1. The fact that failure will happen is not an excuse for expecting to fail

There is no reason to be depressed or give up simply because you will make a few wrong choices. Even more crucial, you must try your best every time because it is the effort and the practice that drives the learning process. They are essential, even if you fail.

Should I parse this sentence as "[There is no reason] [to be depressed or give up simply because you will make a few wrong choices]." or as "[There is no reason to be depressed or give up simply] [because you will make a few wrong choices]."

Thanks for your help ...

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  • To begin with I am wondering why you are using the future tense will. I would write it and punctuate it as follows: There is no reason to be depressed, or give up, simply because you make a few wrong choices. The main clause of the sentence ends with give up. The rest is a subordinate clause dependent on simply because.
    – WS2
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 12:43
  • I would have written it as "There is no reason to be depressed or to give up". You could have as many options in that position as you want, for example "There is no reason to be depressed, to give up, to stop trying or to lose hope because..." In practice, people drop the "to" sometimes, but the meaning is the same as if it were there.
    – Brandin
    Commented Apr 16, 2015 at 12:52
  • [I am confused by, not I have confusion]
    – Lambie
    Commented Apr 17, 2021 at 23:02

1 Answer 1

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First of all, as observed by others too, the future seems off. I'd write:

"There is no reason to be depressed or give up simply because you have made a few wrong choices."

and I'd parse it as:

["There is no reason to be depressed or give up] [simply because you have made a few wrong choices."]

the first being the main, and the second the subordinate.

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