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Matthew1622 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

be important to doing?

I came across a sentence on the VOA special English. The announcer read that "Education is very important to gaining a standing in Chinese society." My question is why it used "gaining" not "gain"?
  

Top answer

The structure is . . very important to something , where something is a noun or a noun equivalent,, ie here, a gerund .

— Clive

  • The structure is .
  • .
  • very important to something , where something is a noun or a noun equivalent,, ie here, a gerund .
  • Clive
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4 Answers
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The structure is . . . very important to something, where something is a noun or a noun equivalent,, ie here, a gerund.

Clive
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I agree with Clive. We could also say that to is a preposition in the sentence and all prepositions are followed by a gerund.

I was interested in gaining access to the club.
Let's talk about
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Hi CB,

all prepositions are followed by a gerund.

You might wish to qualify this a bit.

Clive
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Cliveall prepositions are followed by a gerund.You might wish to qualify this a bit.
Oh, yes. I had the original poster's two options in mind:

"My question is why it used "gaining" not "gain"?"

Perhaps I should have said that a plain infinitive can't follow a preposition. It goe
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