My high school teacher said...

Question

HelloMy name is Susumu. I am in high school and live in . I have a grammar problem. Can you please help me? I wrote a sentence on my writing test at school and my teacher said it is no good. I wrote "The first thing I do in the morning is make breakfast." My teacher said it should be "The first thing I do in the morning is making breakfast."Which sentence is correct and why? Can you explain the grammar to me? I lost 10%! I feel very bad. Thank you very muchSusumu

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

Hello Susumu,

I'm afraid your teacher is incorrect. Your sentence is fine.

Likeguslee · Answer

I disagreed. Make breakfast may be OK in conversation, but in formal writing it is not.

Making breakfast is the first thing I do in the morning => correct

=> The first thing I do in the morning is making breakfast

To make breakfast is the first thing I do in the morning => correct

=> The first thing I do in the morning is to make breakfast

Make breakfast is the first thing I do in the morning => incorrect.

=> The first thing I do in the morning is make breakfast

In formal writing, we cannot have “is” and “make” next to each other without either a “to’ or changing “make” to making.

is to make

is making

BarbaraPA · Answer

Perhaps this is an AmE/BrE thing?

I completely agree that Making breakfast is the first thing I do in the morning is correct. I emphatically feel that The first thing I do in the morning is making breakfast is wrong. At least, to my American ears. And to the ears of three colleagues I just surveyed.

I did think about adding the "to" - and my colleagues (all writers) agreed that it was possible, but their first instinct was no "to."

Similarly, we would say One thing I like to do is read a good book (or watch TV).

I wonder if CJ might be able to shed some light on this apparent discrepency.

Milky · Answer

Do you have a link to these grammar "rules" you are stating?

Milky · Answer

LikegusleeI disagreed. Make breakfast may be OK in conversation, but in formal writing it is not.

Hey, Likeguslee, what's the first thing you do when you arrive home in the evening?

Clive · Answer

Hi guys,

"The first thing I do in the morning is make breakfast."
I agree with all that GG said. This sentence is fine.

In his Practical English Usage, Section 320.5 on 'Infinitive without to', Michael Swan notes that 'clauses which explain the exact meaning of 'do' can have the infinitive without 'to'. His examples include All I did was (to) give him a little push.

I think this kind of thing is basically idiomatic. We say it that way because we like to say it that way.

Best wishes, Clive

MrPedantic · Answer

...I lost 10%!...

You were robbed.

Your teacher should be impaled on prepositions and whipped soundly with dangling modifiers.

I'll come over and do it myself if you like.

MrP

CalifJim · Answer

Rodney Huddleston (Introduction to the Grammar of English) states

"... the complement in such cases is a non-finite construction, of the -ing class if do is in the -ing form, otherwise infinitival." (He includes the infinitive with or without the to under the category of infinitival.)

So if doing is used earlier in such a sentence, the -ing form of the verb in the complement is used. Otherwise, not. So do cannot match making in this kind of structure. It has to be doing and making or do and make (or to make).

The first thing I [do / did / will do] in the morning is [make / to make] breakfast.
What I {am doing / was doing / had been doing} {is / was / was} making breakfast.

Here are Huddleston's examples:

What John had done was (to) obtain the data.
What they were doing to the poor creatures was pulling their feathers out.

CJ

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