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Desafinado Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Could anyone explain the reason?

Could anyone explain why not "help" but "helping" is used for these sentences?

You will see how crucial this service is to helping them stay active and independent!

Establishing a reward/punishment system will teach the players how important competition is to helping them improve.
  

Top answer

In these sentences the word "to" is a preposition not an infinitive marker, and it must be followed by a noun or noun phrase, in this case "helping them stay active and independent" or "helping them improve". The pattern may be more obvious in a case where the thing following is a simple noun, such as "You will see how crucial this is to the company ".

— GPY

  • In these sentences the word "to" is a preposition not an infinitive marker, and it must be followed by a noun or noun phrase, in this case "helping them stay active and independent" or "helping them improve".
  • The pattern may be more obvious in a case where the thing following is a simple noun, such as "You will see how crucial this is to the company ".
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3 Answers
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In these sentences the word "to" is a preposition not an infinitive marker, and it must be followed by a noun or noun phrase, in this case "helping them stay active and independent" or "helping them improve".

The pattern may be more obvious in a case where the thing following is a simple noun, such as "You will see how crucial this is to the company".
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It's because 'to' is a preposition there in your sentence and a preposition can't take a verb. It takes either a gerund or a noun or an objective pronoun.
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Thank you! I clearly understand how it works.
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