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can you please help me with this sentence. Which is correct? Or are they both? What is the difference?

Many young people think that wearing trendy clothes is essential ...

  1. to be accepted by others.
  2. for/to being accepted by others.

I think the second one is correct, but maybe also number one is possible. I can't find an explanation why number 2 is better, it just sounds better.

kimuse
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1 Answers1

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If you look the word essential up in a dictionary, you can see how it is used.

often used followed by to + verb

When you use it in passive form, it should be used in " to be essential to be + past participle."

Mrt
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  • If you google ''essential to being accepted'' you will find many examples of the being + past participle form. So my question is: it this the correct one? Exapmples: "Successful participation" is essential to being accepted by peers...', ..'were considered essential to being accepted as part of the business discourse, ...' – kimuse Oct 01 '18 at 11:37
  • I think the point is here that you can use infinitive form of a verb after the word essential such as "essential to do something". However, at the same time you can use "noun clause" after it . You can say " it is essential for /to + noun clause". In this noun clause ,and you can change a verb to a noun by adding ing, which is called nomalisation. – Mrt Oct 01 '18 at 12:00
  • This might help http://learnersdictionary.com/qa/essential-for-or-essential-to – Mrt Oct 01 '18 at 12:01
  • So you can say : "It is essential to archive a good result." or "it is essential to achieving a good result." However, "achieving" is not verb here. It is part of the noun phrase. ( I hope I am not wrong) – Mrt Oct 01 '18 at 13:20
  • OK, thank you. so in my sentence both options are correct? – kimuse Oct 01 '18 at 17:27
  • I am sorry I am not an authority on English grammar so I cannot say it is correct or not. – Mrt Oct 01 '18 at 18:19