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Wangqh2696122 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Imagine sb doing or imagine sb to do?


I can hardly imagine Peter _____across the Atlantic Ocean in five days.

A.to sail B.sailing C.to have sailed

I feel all above are correct. Do you think so?
  

Top answer

I think only B is correct.

  • I think only B is correct.
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6 Answers
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I think only B is correct.
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B is definitely correct, but C has merit as well.

I can hardly imagine Peter sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in five days.

I can hardly imagine Peter to have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in five days.

C seems (at least grammatically) correct, even if it's a bit of a tongue-twister. Some might even call it pre-war British English.
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But from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, I can also find such a structure: imagine somebody/something to be/do something

And there is an example:

I had imagined her to be older than that.

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"I had imagined her to be older than that " means: " I thought that she was older than that " ; "I supposed her to be older than that". It's not the same as, for instance: I can't imagine her travelling alone (which means: I can't picture her ...")

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I think just B is right.
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wangqh2696122I can hardly imagine Peter _____across the Atlantic Ocean in five days.
A.to sail B.sailing C.to have sailed
I feel all above are correct. Do you think so?
A

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