Have the ability

Question

Please check out the following sentences.

(1) When I was 12 years old, my piano teacher thought I was able to take part in the piano-playing contest, so she suggested me sign up the compitition.

(2) When I ws 12 years old, my piano teacher thought I had the ability to take part in the piano-playing contest, so she recommend me to sign up

the compitition.

Drew.ward · Accepted Answer

contiluoPlease check out the following sentences.

(1) When I was 12 years old, my piano teacher thought I was able to take part in the piano-playing contest, so she suggested me (should be 'I') sign up (for) the competition.

(2) When I was 12 years old, my piano teacher thought I had the ability to take part in the piano-playing contest, so she recommended ~~me to~~ (should be 'that I') sign up (for) the competition.

The parts in blue show the needed corrections. In both sentences 'suggested' and 'recommended' are verbs and everything that follows them in each example is a clause which is acting as the objects of these verbs. Both clauses could begin with 'that' which would clearly mark them as separate clauses but 'that' isn't always used. Even though the direct object of a verb is in the accusative case (me, him, her, us, etc), when a clause like this is used as the object it is treated as a whole unit (like a new sentence inside of the sentence). "I" is the subject of both of these clauses and subjects are always in the nominative case (I, he, she, we, they, etc). So in your examples, you need to use 'I' instead of 'me'.

"Sign up" is a phrasal verb which means 'up' is part of its form and meaning and not a separate adverb or preposition. The verb sign up is followed by a prepositional phrase telling what the person signs up for. So, 'for the competition' is necessary in your examples.

The words above in red are modal auxiliaries which means they act as a unit within the sentence to express a mood (in this case - ability). Some moods can be expressed using several different modals. Ability is one of them. 'Can' and 'Could' may also be used for the same purpose so that the three sentences below have exactly the same meaning:

(1) When I was 12 years old, my piano teacher thought I was able to take part in the piano-playing contest, so she suggested I sign up for the competition.

(2) When I was 12 years old, my piano teacher thought I had the ability to take part in the piano-playing contest, so she recommended that I sign up for the competition.

(2) When I was 12 years old, my piano teacher thought I could take part in the piano-playing contest, so she recommended that I sign up for the competition.

In this usage, all three of these forms (which are used to express past tense) mean exactly the same thing.

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