Infinitives without "to"
Hello everyone. I have a question.
Regarding th follwing three sentences:
(A) All you have to do is (to) study hard.
(B) The best I could do was (to) cheer him up.
(C) What is important for students is (to) study hard.
I'm wondering when to use infinitives without to. I'm pretty sure that we can omit to in Sentences (A) and (B), but not sure about (C). Can we do it? Does "What is important for students is study hard" sound natural?
Top answer
You are right. Generally with infinitival clauses functioning as predicative complement, the bare infinitival is possible, but it is restricted to cases where the subject NP contains do in a relative clause (as in A and B, but not C). The subordinator to can be added if preferred.
- You are right.
- Generally with infinitival clauses functioning as predicative complement, the bare infinitival is possible, but it is restricted to cases where the subject NP contains do in a relative clause (as in A and B, but not C).
- The subordinator to can be added if preferred.
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You are right. Generally with infinitival clauses functioning as predicative complement, the bare infinitival is possible, but it is restricted to cases where the subject NP contains do in a relative clause (as in A and B, but not C). The subordinator to can be added if preferred.
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