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Anooshiravan Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

he is to blame

In this sentence:
"Every body said that I was to blame for the accident".
If it means : "Every body said that I was going to be blamed for the accident", why isn't the word "blame" in the passive form in the first sentence?
thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

to be to blame is an idiomatic expression that we use to say, broadly speaking, that someone is at fault. eg Tom was to blame for the accident. eg My goldfish is missing.

— Clive

  • to be to blame is an idiomatic expression that we use to say, broadly speaking, that someone is at fault.
  • eg Tom was to blame for the accident.
  • eg My goldfish is missing.
  • My cat is to blame.
  • Clive
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5 Answers
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to be to blame is an idiomatic expression that we use to say, broadly speaking, that someone is at fault.
eg Tom was to blame for the accident.
eg My goldfish is missing. My cat is to blame.

Clive
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anooshiravanEverybody said that I was to blame for the accident.
No, this doesn't mean "Everybody said that I was going to be blamed for the accident". It means "Everybody said that it was my fault that the accident occurred", "Everybody said that I caused the accident".

This is not a case of the idiom "is to", ind
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The grammar of this expression is a bit of a puzzle to me. Is "to blame" in "I was to blame" the same grammatically as, for example, "to eat" in "these cakes are to eat"? I'm not even certain whether "blame" is a verb or a noun.
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GPYThe grammar of this expression is a bit of a puzzle to me. Is "to blame" in "I was to blame" the same grammatically as, for example, "to eat" in "these cakes are to eat"? I'm not even certain whether "blame" is a verb or a noun.
I see These cakes are to eat and This man is to blame as the same grammatical pattern.

These cakes are t
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Thank you very much.
As I understood this, I can say both these sentences are the same structure:
This luggage is too heavy to carry.
Everybody said that I was to blame for the accident.
thanks a lot.
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