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Today I read the below sentence:

The employment rate has continued to rise in big cities thanks to the efforts of the local governments to increase it.

Why is there a "to" used before word "increase"? It reads strangely to me. Is this sentence wrong? Is the "thanks to" in this sentence wrong?

Lightness Races in Orbit
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webkws
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3 Answers3

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If you want a simple answer, I'm afraid I don't have one for you. In English the infinitive of a verb, words like "to play", "to walk" or "to think" can be used as "to-infinitives" (where the particle 'to' is included), and "bare-infinitives" (without the particle 'to'). The bare-infinitives are the headwords of dictionaries.

When you can use one or the other depends on specific rules, which are outlined in this Wikipedia article, which shows when you can use the to-infinitive or the bare-infinitive bare-infinitives.

Cases where the "bare-infinitive" is allowed is in constructions like:

I can to speak English.
I will to go to bed.
The loud bang made me to jump.

If you follow that article I linked you'll come down to a list of examples where the "to-infinitive" must be used. It shows:

As a modifier of certain nouns and adjectives:

the reason to laugh
the effort to expand
anxious to get a ticket
to-infinitive

In certain cases you can reform the construction by using "of + present participle", such as "I made the effort of trying it."

If you go to this site, which is a grammar checker, and copy and paste the following in:

I made the effort leave my school. I made the effort of leaving my school. I made the decision stop my habit. I made the decision of stopping my habit.

You'll see that it highlights "effort leave" and "decision stop", as there needs to be the particle "to" in between the two words.

In your sentence the "thanks to" means the same thing as "due to" or "because of". This part does not have any bearing on whether "to" needs to be included. Think of the following sentences and ask yourself if they are grammatical:

I made the effort clean my room.
He made a strong effort win the competition.

It makes no difference in this case if it's the efforts of the government, an effort or a decision or an attempt is generally "to do" something, ie., a "to-infinitive" verb,

Here are some dictionary entries for the use of "effort".

2.It was an effort to get up.
3.Make an effort to arrive promptly.
American Heritage Dictionary

2.a our effort to save him failed.
Collins English Dictionary

Zebrafish
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  • Thanks a a lot,I suddenly see the light.I should have known the "to" means purpose，but I just realize the role is "efforts","of the local governments" is additional burden of this sentence! – webkws Jan 01 '19 at 14:59
  • I have to say that the "effort of" sentences sound wrong to me (native British English speaker) – Martin Bonner supports Monica Jan 01 '19 at 17:36
  • @MartinBonner Yes, I have to admit it sounds strange to me also with certain verbs. I don't know if I'd personally use many myself. I was just trying to illustrate that type of construction, "of" + present participle, which I'm pretty sure it isn't ungrammatical. I guess I might say something like "He went to the effort of" such and such. – Zebrafish Jan 01 '19 at 18:11
  • *I made the effort of trying it. is indeed wrong. A sentence like "Someone went to the effort of creating this artwork" is isomorphic to "Someone went to the seaside town of Brighton." "Creating this artwork" is the gerund phrase that tells what effort someone went to; the artwork definitely got created in this case, albeit with (effort/difficulty/persistence). OTOH, "Someone made an effort to create this artwork" simply means "Someone tried to create this artwork." The (effort/attempt/try) might or might not have succeeded. – Quuxplusone Jan 01 '19 at 18:46
  • @Quuxplusone I'm not understanding on a number of levels. One thing is that someone can be in the process of creating something without completing it, so I can say "he was creating the artwork when he was suddenly interrupted". So your sentence that says "the artwork definitely got created" I don't think is necessarily true. I've also run "I made the effort of trying it" through a number of grammar checkers and didn't get any errors, whatever that's worth. – Zebrafish Jan 01 '19 at 19:19
  • (A) Computerized grammar checkers aren't worth the paper they're printed on. (B) I think we can agree that if an artwork exists, it's because someone went to the effort of creating it. (C) Maybe it'd help to consider the difference between "I made an effort to get you a birthday present" and "I went to the effort of getting you a birthday present." The former can be read as failure: "I'm sorry, I tried to get you a present but came up with nothing." The latter cannot possibly be read as failure, only as passive aggression: "I got you this [crappy] present, so you had better appreciate it!" – Quuxplusone Jan 01 '19 at 20:14
  • someone can be in the process of creating something without completing it: Ah, I'll give you this much. The key to the past tense here is the word "went." This would be strangely worded, but IMHO grammatical: After years of procrastination, he was finally going to the effort of creating the artwork. And then he was interrupted. In this case, the progressive tense of "was going" means the artwork might indeed have remained incomplete. But OP's example, and my example, both used the simple past tense. – Quuxplusone Jan 01 '19 at 20:20
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    It should have highlighted "I made the decision of stopping my habit" as well. A sentence like "I agree with the decision of the committee" is OK, because "the decision of the committee" or "the committee's decision" is a straightforward genitive construction. The "of" clause says who made the decision. But "of stopping my habit" is not a genitive clause. "Stopping my habit's decision" doesn't make any sense at all. – alephzero Jan 01 '19 at 20:48
  • @Quuxplusone (A) If you say so. (B) Irrelevant, but plainly obvious. I merely said that your claim of "the artwork definitely got created" isn't necessarily true. I disagree that "I went to the effort of getting you a birthday present" cannot be read as a failure, although I admit it's the less likely meaning. But the same would be the case with "I made the effort". I don't see why "I made the effort" and "I went to the effort" must necessarily mean different things. Either way, we're discussing semantics here, not grammar. My examples were of grammatical alternatives for illustration. – Zebrafish Jan 02 '19 at 05:03
  • @alephzero Although I think it's wrong for you to equate "decision of stopping my habit" to "Stopping my habit's decision", the latter is actually grammatical anyway, though it may not make semantic sense. Secondly, based on your logic, in the sentence "I contend with the problem of working with my boss", "working with my boss" would equate semantically with "working with my boss's problem". I guess you can see why this isn't a valid equivalence. Look, I don't even have to have those examples, it's just an illustration of a construction without the to-infinitive – Zebrafish Jan 02 '19 at 05:49
  • Neither "decision of stopping my habit" nor "stopping my habit's decision" are grammatical. "Decision to stop my habit" would be grammatical. "The problem of working with my boss" parses the same way as "the seaside town of Brighton": it indicates that "working with my boss" is a "problem." OTOH, "stopping my habit" is not a "decision"; I may make a decision related to stopping my habit, but the actual stoppage itself is not the decision, in the way that working with my boss is the problem. So "decision of stopping" is not necessarily grammatical (and indeed it's ungrammatical). – Quuxplusone Jan 03 '19 at 03:19
  • @Quuzplusone "stopping my habit's decision" may not make semantic sense to you but in terms of grammar it's correct. Can I suggest that you understand the difference between semantics and grammar before you throw out claims of something being ungrammatical, please. I'm willing to listen to anyone for correction, but as you progressively make more false claims this becomes more tiresome for me. If you want to have to have the last word, go ahead, this is the last comment I'm writing. – Zebrafish Jan 03 '19 at 06:21
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thanks to the efforts of the local government to increase it

There are three modifiers attached to the noun "efforts": the definite article, a prepositional phrase, and an infinitive phrase.  The entire noun phrase "the efforts of the local government to increase it" is the object of the preposition "to", which attaches this noun phrase to the word "thanks". 

 

Let's look at what happens without the "to" before "increase":

The efforts of the local government increase it.

This is a complete independent clause.  Without the "to", "increase" works as a finite verb.  It has tense.  It creates a predicate which requires a subject.  This version can stand as a sentence on its own.  It cannot act as the object of "thanks to". 

The infinitive phrase "to increase it" represents the purpose of the efforts.  The predicate "increase it" would represent the action of the efforts. 

 

Without the "to" before "increase", we're left with a clause that does not attach to the prior clause, leaving the sentence broken.  We're also left with a clause that carries a different meaning than the noun phrase in the original version of the sentence. 

With the "to" before "increase", we're left with a noun phrase that acts as the object of the "to" after "thanks".  The sentence is coherent.  The meaning is clear. 

Gary Botnovcan
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The employment rate has continued to rise in big cities thanks to the efforts of the local governments to increase it.

Your confusion is probably increased by the three different uses of the word "to" in that sentence.

The middle one is part of the idiom "X is happening, thanks to Y." This is a relatively informal way of abbreviating the idea that Y is responsible for X. That is, if you want to thank somebody for X (i.e. "give thanks to somebody for X"), you should send your thanks to Y. In this case, the word "to" is being used in its normal prepositional sense ("directed towards").

So we can rewrite the sentence like this:

The employment rate has continued to rise in big cities.
Why? Because of the efforts of the local governments to increase it.

(where the antecedent of "it" is "the employment rate").

You later commented:

I just realize the role is "efforts","of the local governments" is additional burden of this sentence!

Right.

The employment rate has continued to rise in big cities.
Why? Because of efforts to increase it.
Whose efforts? Local governments' efforts. The efforts of local governments.

Incidentally, I don't think "efforts of local governments" is particularly idiomatic. I would rather say

The employment rate has continued to rise in big cities.
Why? Because of efforts to increase it.
Efforts by whom? Efforts by local governments.

The employment rate has continued to rise in big cities thanks to the efforts by local governments to increase it.

We still need to explain the first and third uses of "to" — "continued to rise" and "efforts to increase it." In both cases, as Zebrafish said, "to X" is the to-infinitive form of a verb; that's just how infinitives work in English.

Frequently, you can use either a to-infinitive or a progressive after another verb; so,

The employment rate has continued to rise (acceptable)
The employment rate has continued rising (acceptable)

This is because the thing following "continued" is something like a noun phrase: it says what is being continued. We can use an infinitive, a gerund like "rising", or even an actual noun:

The employment rate has continued its upward trajectory (acceptable)

However, I can't think of any cases where you could do that after a noun (such as "efforts"). This is because the thing following "efforts" is something like an adjectival or prepositional phrase: it says what kind of efforts, or efforts with what purpose.

efforts to increase the employment rate (acceptable)
efforts with an eye to increasing the employment rate (acceptable)
efforts at increasing the employment rate (acceptable IMHO, but informal)
*efforts increasing the employment rate (unacceptable)

And in neither case is it acceptable to omit the "to" part of the infinitive:

*The employment rate has continued rise (unacceptable)
*efforts increase the employment rate (unacceptable)

Quuxplusone
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