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Yanx Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
A question about infinitive
Hi,
I have a question about this sentence :
To fetch water before breakfast seemed to him a rule never to be broken.
I know the above sentence is absolutely right according to my sense of language, that is, I know it is not correct to say something like "To fetch water before breakfast seemed to him a rule never to broke" , but what I want to make clear is the reason why poeple use it this way from the grammatical perspective. Does this have something to do with logical subjects or logical objects, if there is a rule that can apply to the above case, please kindly illustrate with examples. Thanks very much!
Xin
I have a question about this sentence :
To fetch water before breakfast seemed to him a rule never to be broken.
I know the above sentence is absolutely right according to my sense of language, that is, I know it is not correct to say something like "To fetch water before breakfast seemed to him a rule never to broke" , but what I want to make clear is the reason why poeple use it this way from the grammatical perspective. Does this have something to do with logical subjects or logical objects, if there is a rule that can apply to the above case, please kindly illustrate with examples. Thanks very much!
Xin
Top answer
'A rule never to broke' is wrong because a bare infinitive verb form is needed after 'to'. Was there anything else?
- 'A rule never to broke' is wrong because a bare infinitive verb form is needed after 'to'.
- Was there anything else?
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3 Answers
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'A rule never to broke' is wrong because a bare infinitive verb form is needed after 'to'.
Was there anything else?
Was there anything else?
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sorry, it is a typo. I wanted to say "A rule never to break" is wrong.haha, What I need to explain is not this phrase but the above one.
To fetch water before breakfast seemed to me a rule never to be broken.
Why "never to be broken"
To fetch water before breakfast seemed to me a rule never to be broken.
Why "never to be broken"
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The writer simply opted for the passive voice. Passive is used when the agent is less important than the object-- as here, I think.
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