Was to take

Question

'was to take'I'm not 100% sure if 'was to take' is even grammatical?I had, in fact, completely overlooked the fact that each one of these questions requires a long calculation process to be completed, all of which I regrettably learned was to take much longer to complete than the 1 minute I had initially planned.Some help would be great.Thanks.

BillJ · Accepted Answer

... all of which I regrettably learned was to take much longer to complete than the 1 minute I had initially planned.

It is grammatical.

The verb be is a catenative verb, which means that it can take non-finite verbs as complement. In this example be has the non-finite infinitival clause to take much longer ... as catenative complement.

The meaning is similar to that using modal "would", or just the past tense "took", cf. ... all of which I regrettably learned would take / took much longer to complete than the 1 minute I had initially planned.

Clive · Answer

Your sentence is fine.

The verb be + infinitive can be used to express what you might call destiny. Or you could say it's a way of reporting about events that have not yet happened.

eg Tom and Mary said goodbye forever. But they were to meet again accidentally in 20 years.

In the following example,take means require, use up..

eg Last week Fred went to London. He thought the journey would take one hour, but it was to take ten hours.

So your text means this.

I thought each calculation process would take one minute, but it was to take much longer than one minute.

Anonymous · Answer

I had, in fact, completely overlooked the fact that each one of these questions requires a long calculation process to be completed, all of which I regrettably learned were to take much longer to complete than the 1 minute I had initially planned.

shouldn't it be, were, not was, as it refers to the plural 'all of which'?

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