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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
To rely on / to be relied on?
Hi, I'm Rudy. I'm going to be an English teacher next year. I've come across a question about Infinitives, and this time, I would like to hear as many opinions as possible on this.
In most of English reference books in Japan, the sentence,
"The driver is to blame for the accident." is shown as an exceptional case regarding the Voice selection on Infinitives, compared to the sentence;
"The driver is to be blamed for the accident".
It's often said that the first sentence is commonly used as a sort of idiom while the second one is regarded as "formal" even though it's grammatically a correct expression.
Do you guys agree to this account?
One more question;
What about the sentence, "He is not the man to rely on."?
Based on your judgement about the case above, what would you say about the difference between "He is not the man to rely on." and "He is not the man to be relied on."?
I'd really appreciate if you would offer your opinions to me.
In most of English reference books in Japan, the sentence,
"The driver is to blame for the accident." is shown as an exceptional case regarding the Voice selection on Infinitives, compared to the sentence;
"The driver is to be blamed for the accident".
It's often said that the first sentence is commonly used as a sort of idiom while the second one is regarded as "formal" even though it's grammatically a correct expression.
Do you guys agree to this account?
One more question;
What about the sentence, "He is not the man to rely on."?
Based on your judgement about the case above, what would you say about the difference between "He is not the man to rely on." and "He is not the man to be relied on."?
I'd really appreciate if you would offer your opinions to me.
Top answer
Active infintives are often used with a passive meaning in English. I suppose one reason is that they are shorter. This usage seldom leads to misunderstandings as speakers of English are accustomed to relying on common sense in many similar cases when determining the meaning of a phrase or a sentence.
- Active infintives are often used with a passive meaning in English.
- I suppose one reason is that they are shorter.
- This usage seldom leads to misunderstandings as speakers of English are accustomed to relying on common sense in many similar cases when determining the meaning of a phrase or a sentence.
- This usage of the active infintive would doubtless have been at least frowned upon by a Language Academy centuries ago if there had been one in the Anglo-Saxon world.
- There was nothing to do.
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2 Answers
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Active infintives are often used with a passive meaning in English. I suppose one reason is that they are shorter. This usage seldom leads to misunderstandings as speakers of English are accustomed to relying on common sense in many similar cases when determining the meaning of a phrase or a sentence. This usage of the active infintive would doubtless have been at least frowned upon by a Language
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Hi Rudy,
I'm a native English speaker from England, so here's my perspective on this.
In brief, in both cases the first option would be viewed as more conversational, whereas the second would be more formal.
However, in the first example the word 'blame' is used. This is very commonly used in spoken English, but less so in written English. So if, for example you were
I'm a native English speaker from England, so here's my perspective on this.
In brief, in both cases the first option would be viewed as more conversational, whereas the second would be more formal.
However, in the first example the word 'blame' is used. This is very commonly used in spoken English, but less so in written English. So if, for example you were
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