0

I thought these 2 sentences, "All we do is hide away" and "All we do is to hide away", meant the same. However, one day, a native English speaker told me there's a subtle difference in meaning between those two sentences. I asked for an explanation but he said it was too subtle to explain. Can anyone tell me what's the difference between those two sentences?

Hikinggirl
  • 1

1 Answers1

0

If someone tells you there is a difference that is too subtle to explain, then take no notice. It is another way of saying that there is no significant difference of meaning.

That said, there could be a suble difference, which involves another difference at the beginning of the sentence.

Imagine a persecuted family in hiding in fear of being lynched by a mob. Eventually, one of the children starts complaining. She might say:

All we do is hide away. (where 'hide' is the base verb)

or he could say:

All we do is to hide away. (where the so-called infinitive is used with 'to')

Imagine now that the child is complaining that their food is boring, that their parents don't allow them to sing or even talk in more than a whisper and so on. Tiring of the complaints, a parent says:

All we do is to hide away.

Meaning that all the restrictions the parents are imposing are to hide away. It is the 'to' of purpose.

So there could be a subtle difference, or rather, in the absence of a wider context, the sentence as quoted could (just about) be ambiguous. The purpose meaning could not be expressed without the word 'to'.

Decapitated Soul
  • 16,598
Tuffy
  • 11,165