Your invoice has been modified [to reflect vs reflecting in] the change to this month's order. Which is correct?

Question

I'm wondering how to select between "to infinitive or -ing" in sentence properly.

Your invoice has been modified [to reflect vs reflecting in] the change to this month's order

In this sentence, right answer is "to reflect". But I'm wondering why "reflecting in" cannot be selected.

What if just "reflecting (without "in")"? this can be right answer in that sentence?

I would thank you for your help.

This is a whole paragrah.

Dear Mr.Mulgrew,

As you requested over the phone on 5 November, we checked the monthly order of food supplies you submitted through our Web site on 2 November. As you had noted, the order did indeed include ten jars of mayonnaise more than you had specified. As a result, on 8 November, we addressed this issue, which we acknowledge was our fault. On that date, we deducted ten units from your order. Your invoice has been modified [to reflect vs reflecting in] the change to this month's order, and this has been enclosed with this letter. Please accept our apologies for the error. Your item should arrive by 15 November as you requested.

btw - who told you the right answer is "to reflect"? There's no significant difference between using the infinitive (to reflect) or the continuous (reflecting) - it's just that you can't talk about something reflecting in** something else *unless that second "something" is a mirror. But there would almost always be a comma in Your invoice has been modified [*,] reflecting the change to this month's order*. — FumbleFingers, Aug 10 '18 at 16:09
Thank you for your helpful comment. Actually, this question has a whole paragraph. I added that in my question for you. The right answer could be selected by context of paragraph or something else? — sr song, Aug 10 '18 at 17:25
@FumbleFingers - It's not that common to say reflecting in X, but it does come up: "absence of new business from abroad is reflecting in more quiet primary markets here" or "the above conceptual change is reflecting in a redefinition of the...goals and targets" — stangdon, Aug 10 '18 at 18:36
@stangdon: Hmm. I don't much like either of those examples. Google Books, is being reflected* in changes*:112 hits, is reflecting* in changes*:0 hits. — FumbleFingers, Aug 11 '18 at 17:10

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 10 '18 at 18:32

We're looking at three slightly different structures:

Your invoice has been modified to reflect the change to this month's order
Your invoice has been modified reflecting in the change to this month's order
Your invoice has been modified reflecting the change to this month's order

For #1, to reflect means something like "for the purpose of reflecting". You could rephrase this sentence as "Your invoice has been changed so that it matches this month's order."

But in #2, reflecting in means something more like "causing" or "resulting in". So this sentence actually means something like "Your invoice has been modified, so this month's order has changed to match it."

And #3 means essentially the same thing as #1. You could rephrase it as "Your invoice has been modified, and the modification has made it match the change to this month's order."

So this is why you don't want to say "reflecting in", because it actually switches cause and effect in this case.

Your invoice has been modified [to reflect vs reflecting in] the change to this month's order. Which is correct?

1 Answers1