Recently a student of mine made the following mistake : "I want my family don't need anything". I corrected it to "I want my family not to need anything". But when asked why I used "not to" instead of "don't", I couldn't explain why.
Can anybody help me with this?
Thank you very much.
The verb want takes an infinitive after it, not an auxiliary verb.
For example, you can't say
*I want can fly.
You have to say
I want to be able to fly.
To want takes an object, when that object is a thing.
I want a pony.
I want more money.
I want world peace.
To want takes to + infinitive, when an action is wanted, for the subject to do.
I want to sleep.
I don’t want to work.
I want to go to the beach.
I want to be able to fly.
To want takes an object + to + infinitive, when an action is wanted, for another person to do.
I want the baby to sleep.
I want him to work.
I want you to go to the beach with me.
I want my brother to be able to swim.
I don’t want them to need me.
I want my family not to need anything.
To want can also take a noun clause describing an action, starting with that. But these formulations are not preferred. The ones above sound better.
I want that the baby sleeps.
I want that I can fly.
I want that my brother can swim.
I don’t want that they need me.
I want that my family doesn’t need anything.
You can add stress by changing the order of the sentence, starting with the noun clause, and referring to it with a second that.
That my family doesn’t need anything, that’s what I want!
That works with regular objects as well.
A pony, that’s what I want!
