Present infinitive and perfect infinitive
Hi,
can you express your ideas on this please?
There is this exercise on the present infinitive and perfect infinitive. It has two parts.
In the first part it says:
Monica Collins is a famous actress. She is going on holiday to another country. Using the prompts given, say what she expects to be done on her arrival, as in the example.
The prompts are:
meet at the airport
give some flowers
drive to the hotel
photograph for newspapers and magazines
invite to appera on TV
The solution:
She expects to be met at the airport.
She expects to be given some flowers.
She expects to be driven to the hotel.
She expects to be photographed for newspapers and magazines.
She expects to be invited to appear on TV.
And, I agree with this part.
However, the second part says: Monica is back home now. Things didn't happen the way she expected them to. Look at prompts above again an make sentences, as in the example.
The solution:
She expected to have been met at the airport.
She expected to have been given some flowers.
She expected to have been driven to the hotel.
She expected to have been photographed for newspapers and magazines.
She expected to have been invited to appear on TV.
Well, I don't think this part is correct. Because I belive, we use the present infinitive for something that happens at the same time as the verb (here expect) or in the future. Which is correct in the first part.
And I think we use the perfect infinitive to say it happened before the verb (expect in this example). And she first expected and then the things didn't happen. So in my opinion it should be:
She expected to be met at the airports.
She expected to be given flowers. etc. Present infinitive. The things were supposed to happen after expecting.
So, in my view the possibilities are:
She expects to be met at the airport. (and maybe she will met maybe she won't)
She expected to be met at the airport. (and she was met at the airport)
She expected to be met at the airport. (but unfortunately, she wasn't)
Thanks for your thoughts and/or enlightening me.
Top answer
radovan Thanks for your thoughts and/or enlightening me. I have very few thoughts to add. You've already thought it all out yourself.
- radovan Thanks for your thoughts and/or enlightening me.
- I have very few thoughts to add.
- You've already thought it all out yourself.
- I suspect the only way you could get the perfect infinitive in there is to adjust the time sequence with the verb you choose.
- There may be better choices for the verb, and I'll leave that up to you to decide, but here's a possibility: She was disappointed not to have been met at the airport.
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radovanThanks for your thoughts and/or enlightening me.
I have very few thoughts to add. You've already thought it all out yourself.
I suspect the only way you could get the perfect infinitive in there is to adjust the time sequence with the verb you choose. There may be better choices for the verb, and I'll leave that up to you to decide, but here'
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