How can I know whether some random verb takes a verbal complement that’s an infinitive or a gerund — or either?

Question

I’m studying for TOIEC, and I was just now working on some of the sample problems.

I find this next one very confusing:

Our company policy requires employees ____ in accordance with federal safety reguations at all times.

acting

acted

are acting

to act

They say the right answer is #4, but I don't know why answer #1 is not acceptable.

But on purely syntactic grounds, answer (A) *is* acceptable. It's just not a very common usage in your exact context. There's nothing wrong with An art dealer offered him an attractive exhibiting contract, but it would have required him remaining* in America for five or six years* — FumbleFingers, Jul 17 '16 at 13:05
I was once told that reduced relative clauses are not well received when it comes to this kind of exercises. — Schwale, Jul 17 '16 at 18:40
Related:  When should a verb be followed by a gerund instead of an infinitive? — Scott - Слава Україні, Jul 17 '16 at 20:34
See ELL's How can I decide when to use “for” + “-ing” or “to” + infinitive in a sentence? and other related questions to the right of this page (viewd in PC mode, not mobile mode). — Alan Carmack, Jul 18 '16 at 04:31

P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica · Answer 1 · 2016-07-18T06:30:10.227

#1 may be acceptable, and even grammatically justifiable, but only to a very few readers, none of whom are employed by the ETS®. This is germane because, as another answer points out, the question you cite is written under their aegis, and posed as: "Select the best answer to complete the sentence."

Your question is not so much about whether a given verb takes a particular form of complement, but about the appropriate use of a gerund, or participle, as an adjective. Not every verb's gerund is grammatical when used this way in every instance.

#4, the infinive to act, is the only proper answer, because, although the use of a verb as a gerund, participle, or adjective in English may seem "random" to a learning speaker, it is not, any more than is the assigning of gender in German.

Neal Whitman's Very Test provides an interesting method of assessing whether or not a given usage is grammatical.

Usage #1 seems to fail the Very Test.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 18 '16 at 04:56

The instruction for that part of the TOEIC test is 'Select the best answer to complete the sentence'. The best-written test questions have one option which is completely correct and (one, two or) three options which are completely incorrect. Sometimes, though, because of the great variety in English as it is actually used, two options are 'correct' (to some extent, in some varieties of English), but there's a difference in formality/informality, context, emphasis or (as here) rate of usage. As a result, the 'best' answer will be the one which fits the formality/informality, context etc. The 'best' answer here is 'to act' (you know that, you said that yourself), which means that whether 'acting' is 'correct' or 'appropriate' is not relevant.

I appreciate this entry, but it does not seem to answer the question (other than by allusion to other comments and answers) why the correct (or "best") answer is to act and also why it is not acting. This entry seems much like a comment to me. IOW, by what criteria is to act judged to be the best (or correct) answer and by what criteria does acting and the other choices not meet that criteria? — Alan Carmack, Jul 18 '16 at 05:07

How can I know whether some random verb takes a verbal complement that’s an infinitive or a gerund — or either?

2 Answers2