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My dream is becoming an English teacher.

Do native speakers not think that the person who says that wants to become an English teacher?

And, by any chance, do native speakers think that he/she went to bed and had a dream, and in the dream he/she became an English teacher?

In dictionaries, all examples I could find were:

My dream is to become an English teacher.

StoneyB on hiatus
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2 Answers2

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SHORT ANSWER:
My dream is becoming an English teacher is not a grammatically acceptable English sentence.

LONG ANSWER:
This is a licensing matter. That is, there are four clause-types which can act as Noun Phrases; but each verb or adjective or noun which takes an NP complement licenses—that is, accepts—only a subset of these types.

The noun dream licenses a somewhat different set as predicate NPs:

  • that clauses: My dream is that I will become an English teacher.
  • to-infinitive clauses: My dream is [for me] to become an English teacher.

The verb dream, however, licenses only one type:

  • that clauses: I dream that I will become an English teacher.

You cannot say I dream to become an English teacher. On the other hand, you can use the verb dream with a prepositional phrase headed by of + gerund (the -ing form of the verb):

I dream of becoming an English teacher.

The noun dream also licenses this prepositional construction as a modifying clause:

My dream of becoming an English teacher will be dashed if I cannot master the pluperfect.

But gerund clauses are not licensed by the noun dream as predicate NPs. If you want to use a gerund NP you must back into it with this awkward construction:

My dream is one/that of becoming an English teacher.

My dream is becoming an English teacher is therefore simply nonsensical. It means, literally, that your dream is undergoing the process of being transformed into an English teacher!

Unhappily, there’s no way of predicting what constructions any given word will license; you have to learn this word by word.

You will find more discussion of licensing here, here, and here

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StoneyB on hiatus
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    I think introducing the word licensing, and saying the gerund form is "grammatically acceptable" significantly overstates the case for what is in the end just a matter of one form being more "idiomatic" than the other. I don't see anything ungrammatical in *My dream/ideal/goal is having [whatever it is I really want]*. – FumbleFingers Sep 15 '13 at 17:12
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    @FumbleFingers I've never encountered dream is VERBing. But the experts tell us that gerunds have been gradually replacing infinitives for a couple hundred years now (The Great Complement Shift), so maybe this one snuck in under my defenses. ... But your 55 'hits' actually page down to 34. 12 of those give no text. 15 are "my dream is becoming a reality", 3 are "my dream is becoming a nightmare", and of the remaining 3, 2 are in books with titles in Chinese characters, so I see little evidence that the construction is actually in use. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 15 '13 at 17:55
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    @FumbleFingers ... and the last use occurs in this sentence: “My dream is becoming a singer, my parents think there’s no real future in that and it’s a passing faze I’m going through.” I'll stand by my assertion. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 15 '13 at 17:57
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    Great answer, +1. I smiled at the image of a dream transforming into an English teacher, which was my first thought when I read the sentence as well :) You're completely correct, though I will add that if a non-native speaker did make this mistake, they'll still be understood. The alternative is so ridiculous that we'll certainly understand the intent! – WendiKidd Sep 15 '13 at 18:32
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    My dream is being able to win the argument, but I sense my dream is fading. – FumbleFingers Sep 15 '13 at 19:26
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    @FumbleFingers Well, if it makes you feel any better you can say Being able to win the argument is my dream. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 15 '13 at 20:00
  • Not really, no. My problem is understanding what grammatical principle would allow X is Y but not Y is X. Not to mention the fact that even *I* am not so keen on "My problem is to understand that principle". – FumbleFingers Sep 15 '13 at 20:06
  • Maybe no one ever actually says it, and maybe a lot of people think it sounds weird or wrong, but to me, it sounds perfectly fine. I don't think I'd notice it. –  Sep 15 '13 at 20:58
  • @snailboat: In baseball our goal is winning the game. In fact, whenever you have an opponent, your objective is winning. I think StoneyB's gerunds have been gradually replacing infinitives is key here (and so far as I'm concerned, I'm ahead of the curve on this one! :) – FumbleFingers Sep 16 '13 at 00:04
  • @FumbleFingers Fersher, goal and objective license gerund clauses, as do business and purpose. But to my ear, dream and hope and wish and intention and ambition don't. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 16 '13 at 00:12
  • @ StoneyB: There you go again with this "licensing" business! I really don't think there's a meaningful grammatical categorisation system that could rationalise separating dream from goal, objective, business, purpose, (and others, such as aim, ambition, aspiration, fantasy etc.?) It would be too subtle for even careful speakers to maintain. I think it's mainly a matter of what you personally are used to hearing, and how you personally extrapolate combining possibilities using similar words. – FumbleFingers Sep 16 '13 at 00:22
  • @FumbleFingers There's not a "system". I never said it was rational; on the contrary, I said you have to learn it word by word, as those words are used in actual speech. But the technical term for this is licensing. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 16 '13 at 00:43
  • Yeah, I do know all that. I'm just saying your "licensing" is really just your own particular system. Perhaps you've somehow memorised the "random" fact that dream doesn't work like aim in this particular respect, or perhaps you have some categorisation method that works for you. I'm just saying it's obviously the thin end of a wedge, and it seems to me eventually the majority will swamp things with more indiscriminate / simpler usage patterns. (Even if currently the majority seems to be swinging in line behind you! :) – FumbleFingers Sep 16 '13 at 01:04
  • Thank you very much.I will learn licensing word by word.Your very detailed explanation benefited me. – skypescenery29 Sep 16 '13 at 10:40
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    @Fumble - I have no problem with "my dream is fading," but I think that "my dream is becoming" sounds off. When you say "X is becoming," that suggests X is morphing. "My dream is becoming a reality" is fine. "My dream is becoming an astronaut" sounds off - the dream isn't becoming astronaut, your dream is to become an astronaut. So, as Stoney says, I'd use either, "My dream is to become an astronaut," or, "I dream of becoming an astronaut." – J.R. Sep 16 '13 at 23:43
  • @J.R.: I've not referred to anything involving contexts where becoming might function like fading (i.e. - that the dream itself fades, or becomes something). Obviously you have the same negative reaction to dream = becoming* an astronaut* as StoneyB, but I totally reject the notice that this use of the gerund is "wrong", and it's obvious I'm not alone. It's just not a form you're used to, is all. – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 03:36
  • ...also note that it's not just a *British* thing... part of the American dream is owning a home – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 03:39
  • @Fumble - "my dream is fading" was a quote from you! I think you're missing my point. I don't have a problem with the use of a gerund, either; it's the word becoming that messes it up. My dream is owning a home works fine, and is another fine example supporting my last comment. My dream is Xing is normal; My dream is becoming is okay, too, but what follows describes what is happening to the dream, not the dream itself, as in My dream is becoming a nightmare. – J.R. Sep 17 '13 at 10:02
  • @J.R.: Ah right. I forgot about that light-hearted juxtaposition. I think what you're saying is you accept the "gerund" usage *if and only if* it's semantic nonsense to assume a present continuous verb form (i.e. - if the verb represents an action that dreams simply aren't capable of). But I don't see why that leads you to reject "My dream is becoming a singer" out of hand. It's uncommon, and perhaps a little "clumsy", but "ungrammatical" seems a bit strong to me. – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 13:46
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    @Fumble - I don't reject it outright, but I wholeheartedly agree that it's "clumsy," as you say. In writing at least, I'd recommend revising it; use: "My dream is to become a singer" or "I dream of becoming a singer" instead. But, yes, I'd be able to grasp the meaning of the clumsier wording – it's not THAT bad. – J.R. Sep 17 '13 at 15:48
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    @J.R.: The reason I'm being so dogged about this one isn't because I'm trying to defend the usage as such. It's more that I'm trying to see this issue from a learner's point of view. For them, I think it's largely a waste of time trying to understand exactly why we don't normally use OP's exact construction, because it looks to me more like a "temporary anomaly" within an area where "grammar" is changing. Since many very similar gerund usages are okay nowadays, learners can mostly just ignore this "pinch point", since an ever-decreasing number of native speakers will observe it. – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 18:04
  • @Fumble - If I were the learner, I'd want to the know the "normal" way to say it, not the "clumsy" way to say it. Especially since that's the question that was asked; I can't see agreeing with a wording that sounds off, but saying, "Ah, close enough." – J.R. Sep 17 '13 at 18:51
  • @J.R.: But I'm not saying the gerund version is "close enough". My initial answer made it crystal clear we're looking at a 100:1 preference for the infinitive form, and I endorsed that in my later edit. All this hoo-ha is about whether someone who doesn't already know how we normally phrase OP's example actually stands to gain anything significant by committing it to memory, trying to understand why, or attempting to extrapolate any general grammatical principle from the standard usage. In the final analysis, think they don't. – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 21:21
  • @Fumble - I think it sounds decidedly off. Not uninterpretable, but off. I think the rewordings are a huge improvement. If any learner reads through this debate, I'm making it clear which side of the fence I sit on. Can learners mostly just ignore this "pinch point"? Maybe, but I wouldn't endorse that approach. – J.R. Sep 17 '13 at 23:39
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Idiomatically, native speakers would nearly always say...

1: My dream is to become a... (4,260 results in Google Books)
...rather than...
2: My dream is becoming a... (55 results)

In such context, no-one really thinks about dreams as experienced while sleeping. The figurative usage is so common today it's just interpreted as an alternative to my ideal, or my greatest wish, etc.

The word is also used even more figuratively as, for example,...

My new car/job/girlfriend/etc. is a dream! (it/she is perfect).

Following extended debate under StoneyB's answer, I feel I should point out that I think the usage figures underrepresent the prevalence of the gerund form #2 above (as a more recent usage, it's probably more common in current speech than what are mainly older texts). As that answer indicates, some people (not me) think the form is "incorrect". But here are several perfectly respectable written instances of...

part of the American dream is owning [a house, car, whatever]

I defy anyone to claim that syntactically, part of the American dream is any different to my dream, or that becoming an English teacher is different to owning a house.

None of that invalidates the implication of my first sentence. If you want to make sure your English is beyond reproach today, don't use the gerund form yourself. But if you want to feel comfortable with English as it's likely to develop over the coming decades, get used to the fact that this type of gerund usage is becoming increasingly common, and thus increasingly acceptable and "grammatical".

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  • So native speakers don't often say "My dream is becoming a", I understand. Thanks. – skypescenery29 Sep 16 '13 at 10:45
  • What if the expression was really saying: "My dream is being an English teacher (one day)." but the word, being, was mistaken for "becoming" by the speaker/writer? It might account for those 55 results, writers whose first language is not English. – Mari-Lou A Sep 16 '13 at 12:49
  • @skypescenery29: I hope those figures from Google Books make it quite clear we don't often use the gerund in this exact context. Per comments under StoneyB's answer, there may be disagreement over whether it's actually "grammatically incorrect" (if it is, there's certainly no short answer as to why it's not acceptable). – FumbleFingers Sep 16 '13 at 12:49
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    @Mari-Lou: That would be a desperate attempt to explain why *no* native speakers would ever use the gerund here. It may well be the vast majority agree with StoneyB that it's actually incorrect. But I consider myself a competent native speaker, and I don't think it's wrong - just uncommon. Imho the problem isn't explaining why a few "wrong" usages exist. That preceding sentence contains a similar construction, and doesn't bother me. The issue is why it's often felt to be wrong, rather than why there are a few instances in print. – FumbleFingers Sep 16 '13 at 12:58
  • I'm in agreement with you. Out of curiosity I looked at the link and clicked on blogs, and the results were quite an eye-opener. It suggests that this type of construction is more common and than maybe we would like to admit ourselves. Note that the majority are saying "My dream is becoming a reality. However there are a number of doctors, players, singers too etc. Interesting, curious and it sounds OK-ish. It flows, it's easy on the ear. – Mari-Lou A Sep 16 '13 at 13:07
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    I agree: unless we get clued in by other context, we generally think of the verb dream meaning to aspire to, or to hope for. If we're talking about a dream that happened during sleep, I'd expect the sentence to be the past tense: "I dreamed I was an English teacher – and FumbleFingers was in my classroom! It was a nightmare!" ;-) One exception to that use of past tense would be when describing a recurring dream, but, in that case, there's still plenty of context to figure out what the speaker is talking about: "I keep having this dream that I've become an English teacher..." – J.R. Sep 16 '13 at 15:12
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    @Mari-Lou: Haha - "easy on the ear", huh? Not on StoneyB's ear, obviously! I think you may have hit on a key point though - if lots of (particularly, I suspect, older) Anglophones don't like it, that could explain why it seems under-represented in Google Books compared to what we're accustomed to hearing in casual speech. I think it's similar to "This car needs washing", as opposed to "This car needs to be washed", where in my opinion the former is more common in BrE (and may also be more common in recent times, I don't really know). – FumbleFingers Sep 16 '13 at 15:46
  • @FumbleFingers What about This car needs that it be washed? – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 17 '13 at 00:09
  • @StoneyB: Not in a million years, mate! I may be linguistically "permissive", but I'm not a complete slut or pervert! – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 04:05
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    @FumbleFingers Perhaps the word you are looking for is licentious. :) – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 17 '13 at 10:42
  • @StoneyB: Actually, my first thought was "needs that it be xxxx'ed" sounded like a possible dated/archaic form. But I did a bit of sniffing around in Google Books, and came away with the impression it was never particularly used (and thus by implication, never considered "acceptable"). Mind you, until I came to ELU and found out about those dammed Pennsylvanians, I'd never have believed anyone would say This car needs washed. Different strokes for different folks, obviously. – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 14:02
  • @FumbleFingers In "part &c", you're not saying dream is [gerund], you're saying part is [gerund]. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 17 '13 at 14:16
  • @StoneyB: I guess I should have expected that! I still think you're wriggling on the hook here. It doesn't work for me to say that part of my dream can credibly be differentiated from my dream in terms of what constructions it "licenses", but if that's how you justify your aversion to the form under discussion, I don't think I'm going to be able to talk you out of it. – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 14:37
  • @FumbleFingers If we have not arrived at an impasse, part of what this conversation needs is that it be moved to Chat. – StoneyB on hiatus Sep 17 '13 at 14:50
  • let us continue this discussion in chat – FumbleFingers Sep 17 '13 at 17:45