Too young to be reading vs too young to read

Question

what's the difference between them? Can you make a secinery for each of them? Thanks.

Dhawkins1234 · Accepted Answer

The difference between the two is that "to be reading" is the progressive infinitive and "to read" is the (simple) infinitive. As in other languages, the progressive is used for actions that are taking place at that moment.

Some common examples of the two versions used correctly:

A mother walks into her bedroom and sees her child reading a romance novel: "Hey! You're too young to be reading that!"
Two parents go to the bookstore to buy a book for their little boy. The father picks out War and Peace, and the mother says, "War and Peace? He's too young to read that."

Unfortunately in English, you can find many instances of native speakers using the progressive when they technically shouldn't, or not using it when they technically should. For instance, in both of the previous examples you could substitute the other form without a problem. There are other situations however where it would sound awkward or change the meaning slightly. I would suggest that you stick with the "correct" usage, but be aware that native speakers aren't very consistent.

Osee · Answer

Welcome to here! dhawkinds1234.

Thanks for your detailed explanation. I fully understand them now.

BTW, it is romance novel or romantic novel, which is better? Thanks.

KateJS · Answer

'A romantic novel' is the correct phrase, but it can be colloquially shortened to 'a romance' if it's clear that the subject of the conversation is a book.

Osee · Answer

Can you tell me what's the difference between romance and romantics? It seems that both of them can mean romantic affares. Thanks.

KateJS · Answer

A romance - a love affair
A romantic - a romantic person

I've never seen the term 'romantics' except as the plural of the noun above.

Dhawkins1234 · Answer

OseeBTW, it is romance novel or romantic novel, which is better? Thanks.

I see and hear "romance novel" much more often than "romantic novel" in the US. Romance, along with mystery, action, fantasy, and so on, are all literary genres (groups), and novels that belong to those genres are called romance novels, mystery novels, etc. For some genres it sounds somewhat odd to use the adjective form and say "a mysterious novel," very odd to say "a fantastical novel," and just plain silly to say, "an active novel." But some genres are exactly the opposite, like history, which you would say, "a historical novel.'"

The reason there are differences is because not all adjectives are related to their noun forms in the same way. Whether or not it's okay to use the adjective depends on what you're describing, and how the adjective is related to its noun. For instance, a "mountainous bike" would refer to a very big bike! If instead I want to describe a bike meant for riding on mountains, I'd say a "mountain bike." In that case, the noun mountain functions as an adjective to modify bike. Similarly, the word romance in "romance novel" modifies novel. These are quite common in English, and are called attributive nouns or noun adjuncts. They show up in compound nouns: "ball field", "fieldhouse", "bird house", etc.

The good thing is that English dictionaries (in English) will tell you how the adjective is related to the noun. For mountainous I found "resembling a http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mountain," and for historical I found "based on http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/history", which confirms what I said above - a mountainous bike is not correct, a historical novel is correct.

The question you asked in your last post is the same situation applied to adjectives - just as we can sometimes use nouns as adjectives, we can also sometimes use adjectives as nouns. Using romantic as a noun almost always describes a person. There are lots of other examples of adjectives functioning like nouns in English: "the rich and the poor", "the meek shall inherit the earth", "the good, the bad, and the ugly," etc.

Osee · Answer

Yes, dhawkins1234. The most strange English I have seen by now is: I have a 3 o'clock. I heard this in a movie and it means I have an appointment at 3 o'clock.

Too young to be reading vs too young to read

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