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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

To have

A useful personality quality [to have] is the ability to adapt to new situations.

1. What kind of structure is "to have" here?
2. How else can we rewrite this sentence other ways? The structure is vague to me.
  

Top answer

Anonymous A useful personality quality [to have] is the ability to adapt to new situations. 1. What kind of structure is "to have" here?

— CalifJim

  • Anonymous A useful personality quality [to have] is the ability to adapt to new situations.
  • 1.
  • What kind of structure is "to have" here?
  • 2.
  • How else can we rewrite this sentence other ways?
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12 Answers
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Anonymous A useful personality quality [to have] is the ability to adapt to new situations.
1. What kind of structure is "to have" here?
2. How else can we rewrite this sentence other ways? The structure is vague to me.
"to have" post-modifies "quality". Infinitives are quite commonly used like this. The exact paraphrase may differ according to each
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As you know, we can omit "to have" here. I wonder why this can happen. What do we call this kind of structure that can be omitted without changing the meaning? Adverbial? Adjectival? What?
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AnonymousWhat do we call this kind of structure that can be omitted without changing the meaning?
optional

The optional element may be any part of speech, so the specification of adverb, verb, noun, or adjective is really irrelevant.

CJ
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What about this version? Does it have the same usage?

Having a useful personality quality is the ability to adapt to new situations.
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AnonymousWhat about this version? Does it have the same usage?Having a useful personality quality is the ability to adapt to new situations.
No. Having a (useful) quality can't be an ability. The sentence you quote here does not have the same meaning as the original. The main idea in the original is that the ability to adapt is a useful quality. Your sente
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CalifJima beautiful sight to see; a good skill to have; an interesting story to read; a great place to work; an inconvenient time to meet; another puzzle to solve; some information to consider
In Polish we have similar construction but we use "to" as a preposition and -ing form as its object thus we say : a beautiful sight to see[ing]; an interesting
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What about:
It is useful (for people) to have the personality quality of being able to adapt to new situations.

To have the personality quality of being able to adapt to new situations is useful.
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AnonymousWhat about:It is useful (for people) to have the personality quality of being able to adapt to new situations.To have the personality quality of being able to adapt to new situations is useful.
Right. Both of those capture the meaning of the original statement.

CJ
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Having the ability to adapt to new situations is a useful personality quality.

But I think it works. Correct me.
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AnonymousHaving the ability to adapt to new situations is a useful personality quality.But I think it works. Correct me.
No, it doesn't. You seem to say: Having the ability = a quality which doesn't make sense.
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