Questions tagged [predicate-frames]

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How can we reduce sentences in which main clause and noun clause have different subjects? [closed]

In this sentence, the subject of main clause and noun clause are different: I want vs you go. Expanded form: I want that you go there. Reduced form: I want you to go there. So my question is, how ...
raj rajput's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
993 views

Preposition ‘to’ followed by gerund in Steinbeck: “started the little wind to moving among the leaves”

Q.1. This is a sentence by John Steinbeck. I don’t understand the verb construction of the preposition ‘to’ followed by a gerund instead of by an infinitive. What’s the explanation? Evening of a hot ...
Mónica Q's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
101 views

"Take the initiative to INFINITIVE" vs "Take the initiative of GERUND"

Should I say Happy I finally took the initiative to bring two bottles. or Happy I finally took the initiative of bringing two bottles. Is there a "universal" rule with the phrase "...
FluidMechanics Potential Flows's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
179 views

Why is “learning hard” wrong yet “studying hard” is right?

Why does saying learning hard sound so terribly wrong and unnatural, given that working hard, exercising hard, listening hard, thinking hard, and even it rains hard sound perfectly natural and get ...
하하호호's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
74 views

Classifying the uses of to-infinitive and the -ing form

I'm having some trouble to classify the use of the to-infinitive and the -ing form of the verb in the following sentences: "This problem has the potential to be really serious." I took a ...
Ricardo Maia's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
151 views

Why is it grammatically correct to say “It’s time she went”? [duplicate]

Consider these possibilities: It is now time for her to leave home. It is now time for her to be told. It is now time (that) she left home. It is now time (that) she were told. It is now time (that) ...
Muhammad Arslan's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
57 views

The sentence structure containing a relative pronoun indicating the indirect object in the clause

When you want to indicate an indirect object with a relative pronoun, you might change the sentence structure from "verb + IO + DO" to "verb + DO + to IO. But this conversion may be ...
243's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
454 views

What's the syntactic explanation in "Mistakes are likely to happen":

I'm con­fused about this sen­tence con­struc­tion: Mis­takes are likely to hap­pen. I’ve thought of three pos­si­ble ex­pla­na­tions; are any of them cor­rect? Where likely is an ad­jec­tive act­...
nova's user avatar
  • 63
1 vote
0 answers
18 views

To + infinitive vs. To + gerund [duplicate]

In one of the grammar books I study I found a following example: In my previous job I was confined to doing only one thing. I'd say that confined to do is the correct way to say it. I always thought ...
Batal96's user avatar
  • 55
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0 answers
24 views

"this drug induces sleeping" or "this drug induces sleep"?

I seem to have heard both structures before, but I don’t understand which it would be. In other languages the second verb would be in the infinitive, but I have heard things like "Josh hates ...
Will's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
101 views

Lets and allow change sentences, why?

I have just come across something that I have never thought about before and it occurred to me that this site would be the place to ask. The dictionary defines ALLOW as: VERB - let (someone) have or ...
Myles Dugenfelder's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
56 views

"Pecking of" or "Pecking on"

Good evening, I am in the midst of completing a poem and wrote the following line: "The Owl halts its pecking of sweet-fruit" My question is: would it be correct to say "its pecking of ...
Tom O' Bedlam's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
237 views

"Ground into" or "Ground to"

I am writing a poem and I would like to convey that something is desecrated into nothing, so to speak, so I decided to go with something in the ilk of: 'twas ground (ground being past tense ...
Tom O' Bedlam's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
111 views

Has the verb "to convene" ever been commonly used to mean "to be convenient to"?

Some Romance lan­guages' own cog­nates for our Latin-de­rived word convene and convenient can be verbed, like verb phrase to be convenient is used in cur­rent English: Não me convém. (...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
97 views

health experts foresee/predict the novel coronavirus spreading in the U.S

One of the top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans on Tuesday that health experts foresee the novel coronavirus that has killed thousands spreading in the ...
listeneva's user avatar
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35 votes
3 answers
6k views

Has the verb "to import me" ever been commonly used in English the way "to concern me" is in the phrase "It does not concern me"?

In various Euro­pean lan­guages, most es­pe­cially in the Ro­mance ones, their own re­spec­tive cog­nates for our Latin-de­rived word im­port can be used as a verb in much the way as the verb con­cern ...
Paul Richter's user avatar
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0 answers
114 views

Is this tutorial using "to [verb]-ing" the right way? When should I just use "to [verb]"? [duplicate]

That tutorial says Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is an approach to analyzing datasets to summarize their main characteristics. It is used to understand data, get some context regarding it, ...
JJJohn's user avatar
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3 answers
609 views

Allow X: What’s the difference between "for the sharing of X" and "to share X"? Do they mean the same thing?

What is the difference between these two: Presentation events allow for the sharing of knowledge. Presentation events allow to share knowledge. Do they share the exact same meaning?
DC glory's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
216 views

Omission of "is" in "She thought the study of Latin a waste of time."

In The Elements of Style, the authors give this example: She thought the study of Latin a waste of time. I cannot understand why the verb is has been omitted. Should not this sentence be as: ...
SamPam's user avatar
  • 49
1 vote
3 answers
342 views

Preposition after 'deluged'

I am aware that the word deluged means two things: Flooded with water Overwhelmed The question I want to ask is its usage in a sentence. Would I say 'deluged with' or 'deluged by' something? In ...
John Lee's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
270 views

What is verb tense consistency?

"To his great astonishment and mortification, Sticky saw his parents begin trying less and less to find him, instead devoting their time and energy toward the proper disposal of their newfound riches" ...
MUMBAS's user avatar
  • 13
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

What's the difference between using "of" and using "with" when showing a cause?

What is the sense of a sentence when of and with are variously used to show the cause of something? He died of cancer. He was shivering with cold. Why isn’t it like this, or can it be? If it can be, ...
Ajay Vyas's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
88 views

The "that" elimination problem

The sentence I marveled that you chuckled that I said "juxtaposition". suffers from "that" overload. We'd all agree. It's easy to slim either 'that'. Hence either I marveled you chuckled that I ...
Calaf's user avatar
  • 121
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

"I know him ʙᴇɪɴɢ honest" vs “I know him ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ honest”

The intended original sentence before conversion is: I know that he is an honest man. I want to know about these two possible reformulated versions of that sentence that replace the original’s ...
Muhammad Jahid's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
3k views

What is the form of a verb after "achieve" [closed]

Which form is correct, achieve+to+verb or achieve+verb+ing? I have achieved to play piano well. I have achieved playing piano well.
user349995's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
1k views

Does the verb “ban” take a gerund or infinitive as its complement? [closed]

Which one below is correct while using the verb ban? Plastic bottle using was banned by government in the country. Government banned to use plastic bottle in the country. Plastic bottle was banned ...
Foreign student's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
540 views

"It's ok to somebody" sentence structure

I corrected a student as she had made the sentence "it's ok to Martin". I know that this sentence structure is incorrect, she asked why I had made the correction and I am having difficulty explaining ...
Kyle Mostert's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
129 views

imperative to -ing [duplicate]

Which one is right? the degree is imperative to consolidating my grasp on concepts and keeping me abreast of upcoming upgrades the degree is imperative to consolidate my grasp on concepts and keep me ...
user3508140's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
200 views

Is expression "It does us no harm." grammatically correct?

I would write it with "to": "It does to us no harm." or "It does no harm to us". Similar example from https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/do-to "I’ll never forgive him for ...
Serg's user avatar
  • 153
2 votes
2 answers
230 views

“To agree with someone”: is that prepositional phrase an adverbial or a nominal one?

In this sentence: I agree with you. What is the function of the prepositional phrase ”with you” there? Is it an adverb or noun? If it is an adverb, then what type of adverb is this?
HONEY's user avatar
  • 21
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Verbal regency using “afraid”

I am a Portuguese speaker and in my mother tongue there is something called 'verbal regency', and I think there ought to be something similar in English! Since I am also an English teacher I told one ...
Matheus Minguini's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
252 views

Does the verb “enable” take a bare-infinitive complement like “let” or a to-infinitive complement like “allow”? [duplicate]

How can you predict which verbs take which type of infinitive as their complements? For example, is the to before open here mandatory, forbidden, or optional? The Gold Monetization Scheme will ...
moumita's user avatar
  • 29
4 votes
2 answers
37k views

proud to be & proud of being

I have the following two sentences which I would like to confirm the difference in meaning for. I am proud to be a nurse. I am proud of being a nurse. I'm mainly wondering about the difference in ...
user276471's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
598 views

Passive voice sentence [closed]

I saw an idiom in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, be had, defined there as: to be tricked or fooled by someone And I saw its usage like this She doesn’t want to buy a used car because she’s ...
Suraj tiwari's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
55 views

difference in meaning between 2 phrases [duplicate]

I need to know the difference between these two sentences 1)He stopped to playing football 2)He stopped playing football
Hazim Ahmed's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
230 views

Infinitive of Purpose or For [duplicate]

Could you please tell me which usage is correct ? 'I need money to start a business' 'I need money for starting a business' Actually the first one sounds more natural to me and also I know for is ...
d.alex's user avatar
  • 319
3 votes
1 answer
651 views

What are some give-type verbs that cannot undergo straight dative alternation?

The following dative alternations sound off to me: I want to donate my clothes to charity. --> I want to donate charity my clothes. He has to submit his paper to his teacher. --> He has to ...
CDM's user avatar
  • 3,864
6 votes
5 answers
814 views

Why does a pronoun as the predicate of an indirect object (e.g. "I gave her it") sound wrong?

Forgive me if I've used the wrong terms in the title, I did my best given my middle-school grammar lessons and Wikipedia. "I gave her the book" sounds just fine, but "I gave her it" sounds stilted ...
cincodenada's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
41 views

"Having you feel that way makes me feel hopeless" or Having you feeling that way makes me feel hopeless"? [duplicate]

Which sentence is grammatically correct and WHY?
Neko's user avatar
  • 21
-1 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is "make me to go" grammatical? [closed]

Is this sentence grammatically correct? You can’t make me to go with you. Is the word to required there or not, and why?
Ashish Garg's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
21k views

I saw her dance/dancing? I saw a flash of lightning strike/striking? I caught her steal/stealing? [duplicate]

Meta: I found a very similar post asking the difference between "I saw him cross" and "I saw him crossing". I have three additional questions on sentences of this form. In the post I am referring to, ...
Max2015's user avatar
  • 41
172 votes
3 answers
593k views

"Replace with" versus "replace by"

I often see "replace with" and "replace by" used interchangeably, but this doesn't sound right to me: I replaced that component by this one. I would use "with" in such a sentence. "By" only seems ...
ntoskrnl's user avatar
  • 1,823
10 votes
3 answers
9k views

Why "answer me" but not "answer me the question"?

Why are "answer me" and "answer the question" acceptable but not "answer me the question"? Is it similar to "explain me (something)"?
Lee's user avatar
  • 141
0 votes
1 answer
58k views

"Support on the project" or "support with the project" [closed]

What would be the correct preposition to use? Thanks for your support on/with the project.
Roumen Jordanov's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Differences between Case Frames and Semantic role labeling

I'm learning about some basic linguistics theory and have come across case frame analysis and semantic role labeling as methods of determining agents within sentences, and arguments for verbs. ...
Sara's user avatar
  • 21
20 votes
7 answers
11k views

How does one know when to use a gerund or an infinitive?

As a native speaker of English, the gerund version of this sentence sounds better: infinitive: When used together in chains, extension methods are an unprecedented tool to produce extremely ...
Edward Tanguay's user avatar
62 votes
4 answers
55k views

When should a verb be followed by a gerund instead of an infinitive?

Some verbs are followed by ing, e.g. I enjoy swimming. We can't say I enjoy to swim. Likewise, some verbs are followed by to, e.g. I decided to make a plan. Which particular verbs are followed by ...
Mehper C. Palavuzlar's user avatar