41
votes
Is this sentence from Orwell's Animal Farm grammatically sound?
I think the meaning of 'use' had set you on the wrong track, plus an assumption that English always was as it is now.
The meaning of 'use' here (all definitions from OED) is not the sense of
'To ...
- 11.7k
19
votes
Accepted
Preposition ‘to’ followed by gerund in Steinbeck: “started the little wind to moving among the leaves”
You got me to thinking...
Thanks for your question, Mónica; it definitely made me think—by which I
mean that it got me to thinking.
Now that’s a perfectly unremarkable
use that you hear all the time, ...
- 137k
12
votes
Hear Me Roar Vs Hear Me Roaring?
It's a quote. One of the very first anthems of the women's movement was Helen Reddy's 1970s hit "I Am Woman" (see Wikipedia for the song's history). Its opening lines are
I am woman, hear me roar
...
- 23k
9
votes
Accepted
'Using a keyboard is better' v 'It's better to use a keyboard': and why IT with the infinitive?
We often use gerund-participle clauses when we want to use a verb as a Subject:
Smoking is bad for you.
Using a keyboard is better
In English, we don't like to use infinitival clauses as Subjects, ...
- 48.7k
8
votes
Is this sentence from Orwell's Animal Farm grammatically sound?
The quoted line had 'used to' as an adjective in the sense 'habituated'. As a modal auxiliary it is not used. The verb phrase is 'had been'. When 'used to' is a modal auxiliary, it means habitual ...
- 2,353
7
votes
Accepted
Gerund or Infinitive after an adjective
Your understanding does make sense. However, the sentence with the gerund requires a comma:
[1] Doesn't he seem way too shy, being an actor?
The part after the comma is a supplement, not integrated ...
- 12.6k
7
votes
Accepted
Should infinitive or ing-form be used after "help"?
Help allows both a plain infinitival complement and a to-infinitival complement when it's a verb. The -ing clause as complement is marginally acceptable at best.
In the Corpus of Contemporary American ...
- 11.1k
6
votes
Gerund after "to". Sentence: We use music to helping us relax
We use music to help us relax. We use music for helping us to relax. We use music for the purpose of helping us to relax. But your example with “to helping” is weird, and probably wrong to most ...
- 29k
6
votes
Accepted
Infinitive vs Gerund (?)
This is not really grammar, it is (i) 50% style – parallelism – English likes parallelism and (ii) 50% how infinitives are dealt with:
The general form is “I prefer A to B” The parallelism occurs as, ...
- 46.5k
5
votes
"To include" vs. "including"
As a civilian editor who works for the Army, I see this way more than in that report. My own take on it (based on hearing people say it, almost daily) is that it is meant in the sense of a command. ...
- 59
5
votes
I wish to see my children to have/having a happy life?
Both sentences are grammatical but neither sounds particularly natural to me, and as @Biblasia stated in their answer, the first sentence means the speaker wants to only see their children in order “...
- 93k
4
votes
Hear Me Roar Vs Hear Me Roaring?
Compare these two sentences:
You're gonna hear me roar.
-and-
You're gonna hear me roaring.
The first is far more definite and assertive. It has a defiant, almost challenging, quality to it. I'm ...
- 1,446
4
votes
Can I start a sentence with To + verb?
You certainly can.
What makes your example odd is that "be important" does not readily accept an infinitive clause as its subject, though it does as complement:
? To make friends is ...
- 77.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Can to-infinitives be used after the verb “dislike”?
Is “I dislike to go there” a wrong sentence?
ᴛʟᴅʀ:
Like like, historically dislike took a ᴛᴏ-infinitive not an -ɪɴɢ verb, but over the last century common usage has swapped those two preferences and ...
- 137k
4
votes
Accepted
"believe someone to do something" - (why) is it wrong?
I think your confusion is related to the use of the infinitive with the passive form of "believe". When certain verbs expressing opinion or reasoning are used in the passive, they can take the ...
- 3,200
4
votes
Preposition ‘to’ followed by gerund in Steinbeck: “started the little wind to moving among the leaves”
Usage in this area (whether or not to include to between start and a gerund1) has changed significantly over time. Until a century ago, we were as likely to include the "extraneous" to as ...
- 142k
3
votes
Gerund? Infinitive? Why, when we talk about jobs, do we say "I have a job taking people on tours" instead of "I have a job to take people on tours"?
Re:
My job is to drive people around the city.
My job is driving people around the city.
You now have a verb (is) in between your noun (job) and the descriptor. After "is," either the present ...
- 110
3
votes
"All I want is for him to return safe" Why isn't it "…for him is to…"?
There is a difference in meaning between "All I want is for him to return safe(ly) and "All I want for him is to return safe(ly)".
In the first case the speaker is saying that the desire for the ...
- 17.2k
3
votes
Usage of infinitive or gerund
"For him to sail back" is a noun phrase, which can stand as the subject of "unthinkable".
"Sailing back" is also a noun phrase, which can also stand as the subject of "unthinkable"; but there is ...
- 77.8k
3
votes
Usage of infinitive or gerund
[For him to sail back] is unthinkable.
[For him sailing back] is unthinkable.
Only 1. is grammatical.
When a to-infinitival contains a subject, it also contains the clause subordinator for ...
- 13.5k
3
votes
"I know him ʙᴇɪɴɢ honest" vs “I know him ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ honest”
I know him to be honest.
The Oxford Learner's Dictionary explains this construction in definition 5 for know:
reputation [transitive, usually passive] to think that somebody/something is a ...
- 41.7k
3
votes
Even though she is angry, you should try _______ (talk) to her
You're quite right. Both to talk and talking are possible, valid options here. Good catch.
Edit: About the difference in meaning, I think it boils down to the difference between two meanings of to ...
- 21.6k
3
votes
"I like watching" vs "I like to watch" What's the difference?
The Cambridge Dictionary, on verbs like hate, like, love and prefer, makes the following remarks:
We can use hate, like, love and prefer with an -ing form or with a to-infinitive:
In American English,...
- 68.1k
3
votes
impersonal pronoun "it"
[1] To exercise regularly is important.
[2] Exercising regularly is important.
[3] It is important to exercise regularly.
[4] It is important exercising regularly.
[1]-[3] are fine. Note that the ...
- 13.5k
3
votes
you could do worse than + -ing
Dictionaries include sentences involving different strings after 'than':
[+ infinitive]: He could do worse than marry Eleanor. [Longman]
[+ infinitive]: You could do worse than take a leaf out of the ...
- 87.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Is the sentence "What I need to do is sweeping them off" grammatically correct?
The sentence “What I need to do is to sweep them off” is grammatically correct!
But, the sentence “What I need to do is sweeping them off” is grammatically incorrect.
The reason of why that sentence ...
- 46
2
votes
"What I'm doing is watching TV." — Why does it have to be the gerund-participle ('watching')?
The examples used in the post are wh-type cleft sentences complement of the verb "be". We know cleft clauses relocate information in an otherwise straightforward sentence for emphasis. lt is just ...
- 2,353
2
votes
"The carrots need being chopped" and "The carrots need to chop"
Though now a days the semi-modal (Quasi-modal) use of 'Need' has fallen out of favour, it still smacks at times of its modal nature : The expression of subjective attitude and opinion for ...
- 2,353
2
votes
"The carrots need being chopped" and "The carrots need to chop"
The simple answer to your second question is that sentence 1 includes the verb "to be" and sentence 2 doesn't.
Regarding your first question:
"The carrots need to be chopped (up)." Based on ...
- 111
2
votes
"need help using" vs "need help to use"
"using the computer" is the task and refers to the "present time" (i.e., the period in which the computer is used). There is an implied "with": Let me know if you need any help with [using the ...
- 4,760
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