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At its premise, it asks of people to turn off all non-essential lights for one hour as a means of reducing global electricity consumption.

At its premise, it asks of people to turn off all non-essential lights for one hour as a means to reduce global electricity consumption.

Are both ways OK?

Deadrat · Accepted Answer

"Means of" seems more popular, but there's nothing wrong with "means to."

Your problems are (1) "At its premise" means that it is based on an assumption. I don't see how that makes sense with asking people something. (2) "asks of ... to" is a little strange. Generally, what's asked of someone isn't an infinitive: "All I ask of you is love." Even the Biblical prescription is phrased indirectly: "This is what *** asks of you: to deal justly,...." Perhaps just "asks" would be better. (3) People ask, not inanimate objects, so "it asks" is also strange. If you want to use the phrasing metaphorically, you'll need an antecedent connected with people, like a manifesto: "The manifesto asks people to turn off their lights." We understand that the document isn't asking, but that the author's wrote the request into the document.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymous To / in

This is your header.

Anonymousmeans of reducing ... means to reduce

These are your examples.
__________

Both are OK, but a search of the corpus fraze.it reveals that the of -ing form is used about twice as often as the to form.

CJ

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