English Language Learners Stack Exchange
English Language Learners Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [complementation]

105 questions
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10 answers

Why is "He knows to swim" incorrect?

I was reading a website where common English sentence errors are written - INCORRECT - He doesn't know to swim. CORRECT - He doesn't know how to swim. I know He doesn't know how to swim is a correct sentence. But why is the other one wrong, is my…
Man_From_India
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1 answer

Complementation of Adjectives

I have four questions regarding classifying phrases complementing adjectives. I start with some examples: (1) She was hesitant to tell her parents. (2) The boss was anxious to promote sales. (3) Are you afraid of spiders? (4) We were…
Hồ Quang Trung
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3
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2 answers

Are these pronouns semantic subjects of to-infinitives?

(1) Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies, but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward. (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) (2) Harry waved madly at the other…
Listenever
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"{migration/migrating/that you migrate} soon" -- Regarding the adverb, which would be most grammatical?

It's been a while since I've needed to dig that deep into English grammar. I'm not sure which of the below is grammatically correct. I recommend that you migrate soon. I recommend migration soon. I recommend migrating soon. Personally, I…
seb
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3
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2 answers

Use and meaning of "to VERB" clause

I am often confused about the construction of clauses with to. I saw that there was not much water left in the bottle, so I picked it up went to the kitchen refilled it. Is this a possible contraction of the previous sentence? Is it acceptable? I…
Max
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What's the difference complementizing between with gerund-participle and to-infinitive?

They would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say good-bye to Norbert if they hadn't been so worried about what they had to do. It was a very dark, cloudy night, and they were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because…
Listenever
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1 answer

Selected for/to + ing

Would you write He has been selected for testing the car OR He has been selected to test the car OR He has been selected to testing the best car ever made
Bente
1
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1 answer

Verb or Prepositional Phrase

Actually, I have a theoritical part to cover with details about Verb, Noun, Prepositional and Adjective Phrases regarding Complements of Adjectives. I have done 80% of my work but still got stuck with this example and one more that I have…
Hồ Quang Trung
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How to parse 'than that men should attribute the sorts of things'? (1689)

This article introduced me to the source: Point 6, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), Chapter XXXI, Of Adequate and Inadequate Ideas by John Locke. But yet this property has no necessary connexion with that complex idea, or any part…
user8712
1
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3 answers

When to omit "as" in the cases below?

The problem puzzling me: 1) " I consider him a good person " or " I consider him as a good person" 2) " I was appointed commander " or " I was appointed as commander "
오준수
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that looks an interesting book; they look good guys

That looks an interesting book. (OALD) ‘Look’ can take an NP for its complement by OALD. Now what I’m wondering about is if a person/people could be a subject in the structure, for instance, “They look good guys.” If we can’t, does it have to be…
Listenever
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1 answer

Is "Get it me" a grammatically correct sentence?

A friend of mine was telling me he was hungry and so I said he should get food. He then said "but you're not here to get it me". At this point I told him that it didn't sound like an actual correct sentence but he argued it was. I tried to tell him…
CaptainCookie
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Why can't we say "I regret I didn't do it"?

I recently talked to a native speaker and he told me that we can't say: I regret I didn't do it. And that we should say instead: I regret not doing it. I understand why he second sentence is right. But what's wrong with the first one? Why can we…
user2738748
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What is the differences between 'try to' and 'try to+verb' and 'try + verb'?

I try to ride a bike. I try riding a bike. I try ride a bike. What is the difference between above three sentences? Please, tell me about it.
박용현
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I want to ask about the difference betweeen "Grab Someone by the Arm" and "Grab Someone's Arm"

I'm learning English as my second language, and what one of my college teacher explained seems not quiet right. He said that these words, such as 'grab, pull, etc', whenever they are used, it has to be like this: He grabbed her by the arm, or He…
user142660
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