0
Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

"To pity" -am I right?

Today in class, my teacher wrote the following sentence on the blackboard for analysis: "being the victim means no matter what you do you are to pity." And my immediate response was "you are to pity who or what? Or did you mean to be pitied?" Apparently I'm all wrong and her version was a valid way of saying it, but I can't find any examples of this anywhere on the Internet. Can "he is to pity." Really be a valid sentence describing someone pitiful?
  

Top answer

You can say 'he is a man to pity', but not 'he is to pity'. It needs to be 'he is to be pitied'.

— Fivejedjon

  • You can say 'he is a man to pity', but not 'he is to pity'.
  • It needs to be 'he is to be pitied'.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

2 Answers
0
You can say 'he is a man to pity', but not 'he is to pity'. It needs to be 'he is to be pitied'.
0
0
I agree. "You are to pity" does not really make sense. "You are to be pitied" is much more clear.
0

Related Questions