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Jigneshbharati Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Useful to be sure

"I understand confusion about prepositions. They are strange words. Useful to be sure, but hard to pin down. You can’t define them in the normal way."
When a Preposition Is an Adverb
What parts of speech the phrase " useful to be sure" is ? And is " to be sure" an infinitive modifying " useful " ?
What does the quoted phrase modify?
Thanks
Jignesh
  

Top answer

Jigneshbharati What parts of speech the phrase " useful to be sure" useful and sure are adjectives. to be is the full infinitive form of the verb be . Jigneshbharati And is " to be sure" an infinitive modifying " useful " ?

— CalifJim

  • Jigneshbharati What parts of speech the phrase " useful to be sure" useful and sure are adjectives.
  • to be is the full infinitive form of the verb be .
  • Jigneshbharati And is " to be sure" an infinitive modifying " useful " ?
  • No.
  • The unabbreviated sentence is They are useful, to be sure, but they are hard to pin down.
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2 Answers
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JigneshbharatiWhat parts of speech the phrase " useful to be sure"
useful and sure are adjectives. to be is the full infinitive form of the verb be.
JigneshbharatiAnd is " to be sure" an infinitive modifying " useful " ?
No. The unabbreviated sentence is They are useful, to be sure, but they
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