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ArtiQ Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Verb pattern

"A natural athlete, he longed .....(have) a career in baseball, but failed ...... (achieve) this after breaking his arm in a professional game."

Should it be having or to have?
Should it be to achieve or achieving?
  

Top answer

ArtiQ We use the infinitive to indicate future time. The gerund (present participle) is use to indicate relative present time. Here are some examples: I would love to have you come to my house for dinner.

— AlpheccaStars

  • ArtiQ We use the infinitive to indicate future time.
  • The gerund (present participle) is use to indicate relative present time.
  • Here are some examples: I would love to have you come to my house for dinner.
  • I loved having you for dinner last night.
  • So what do you think about yours?
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6 Answers
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ArtiQ
We use the infinitive to indicate future time. The gerund (present participle) is use to indicate relative present time. Here are some examples:

I would love to have you come to my house for dinner.
I loved having you for dinner last night.

So what do you think about yours?
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Seems like the answer is "to have" and "achieving"
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both are relative future time.
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Wow, this is really hard. I am having troubles with this task that I have for tomorrow. How do you know they are relative future time? 
Some hard ones I got are

Without allowing this ... (interfere) with his other plans
in 1918 he started...(draw) cartoons featuruing odd facts.
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Every verb that can form a grammatical pattern with a second verb governs either the to form or the -ing form. Some take a to form without the to (bare infinitive). Some can govern more than one form.

to long governs the to form.
to fail governs the to form.

longed to have; failed to achieve

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CJ:
Precisely correct!
Here is a good resource I use for this - LINK
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