[Grammar] open to meet/meeting new people and make/making new friends

[Oceanlike]

It's the same old topic....so sorry! I'm thinking about the difference between the following sentences:

1a) I am open to meet new people and make new friends.
1b) I am open to meeting new people and making new friends.

(1a) - Is this sentence incorrect because gerunds are not used?
(1b) - ....open to meeting new people and making new friends. I understand that gerunds function as nouns. However, I am having difficulty in understanding how the 'to' before meeting is a preposition; how meeting is a noun.

So sorry that it's about gerunds again....

Thank you for your patience. I want to master this. Thank you for teaching me further on it.

 

[probus]

I hesitate to say that 1a) is incorrect. It is comprehensible, but somewhat unnatural. 1b) is better. It is what a native speaker would prefer and use instead of 1a).

 

[TheParser]

I am having difficulty in understanding how the 'to' before meeting is a preposition; how meeting is a noun.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Oceanlike:


I have found some information on the Web that may interest you. I do NOT know how accurate the netizen's information is.



1. The netizen says that "open to" is an idiom.

a. "To" is a preposition.

2. The netizen gives sentences similar to these.

a. "The boss is open to the discussion of wages."
b. "The boss is open to discussing wages."

3. The netizen says that using an infinitive can be confusing, grammatically speaking.

a. "I am open to discuss X." (Is the "to" the infinitive marker?)
b. "I am open to discussing X." (In such a sentence, "to" is clearly a preposition.)

4. You have a question about the gerund "meeting." (The following is only my ideas.)

a. You already know that a gerund is both a noun and a verb.

i. I like eating ice cream.

a. "Eating" is a noun. Compare with an ordinary noun: "I like the consumption of ice cream."

b. "Eating" comes from the verb "eat." In "I eat ice cream," the object is "ice cream." Therefore, "ice cream" is also an object in "I like eating ice cream."

*****

Credit for the information in sentences 1 - 3 goes to a netizen called "Stoney B" who posts at the grammar helpline Stack Exchange. To read the netizen's article, google: Open to discuss(ing)

 

[MikeNewYork]

Gerunds take direct objects and they are not verbs.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Are we going to have this discussion again?

This will get you started: http://www.englishpage.com/gerunds/part_1.htm

 

[tzfujimino]

I agree with Mike if he means "finite verbs" when he says "verbs".

 

[MikeNewYork]

Mike does mean that. It is a simpler system to understand.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Here is another source: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/627/

 

[MikeNewYork]

You quoted a small list of people in the grammar field. By contrast I referred you to thousands of other sources on the Internet. We are all entitled to our opinions. Your "experts" can believe what they believe but they cannot turn a gerund or participle into a verb. One cannot form a complete sentence using only one of them. And they cannot take a subject. By definition, a sentence has a subject and a verb. That has not changed.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I have accepted "verb forms", whatever that means. But they are not verbs.

 

[MikeNewYork]

The verb there is "am working", not "am" or "working".

"Am" is a verb because it can function alone as a verb in a sentence; "working cannot".

I am home. :tick:
I working now. :cross:

 

[Tdol]

Mike, in other threads I have quoted from two of the leading grammars of the last thirty years, A Comprehensive grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language words supporting my belief that gerunds are as much verbs, or verb-forms, as the third person present singular form of the verb. I have named a dozen leading grammarians who say similar things. I have since looked through several dozen books on grammar published between 1586 and 2012, and found none that say that the gerund is not a verb(-form). I trust these books, many of which are cited in hundreds of others, more than I trust websites run by unknown people.

However, I am sure you will have a crusty old grammar or two referring to them as noun-verbs. I do. I agree that they are verb forms, but they are verbal cross-dressers some of the time.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes, we do no learners a service by describing verbals as verbs. It is too confusing.

 

[Rover_KE]

I expect the OP is losing the will to live if he is still trying to follow this discussion.

Perhaps one more exchange from each of you will suffice to conclude this thread.

 

[MikeNewYork]

As far as I am concerned, you can close the thread. We will never agree.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Yes, we do no learners a service by describing verbals as verbs. It is too confusing.

Speaking as a learner, it is confusing to me, as is the term 'non-finite clause' used in this post.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Yes that one had me confused also.

 

[Oceanlike]

I expect the OP is losing the will to live if he is still trying to follow this discussion.

:roll: heehee initially, the OP did try to follow and understand the serious discussion. And SHE soon realised that she did not understand anything that was being exchanged....eventually she had to stop trying because her mind felt like it was "seeing" stars :-D

I feel like a small child in the big big world of the English language! Indeed, the profound (at least to me) discourse serves to remind me that I have so much more to learn, and I appreciate this platform where I can learn from many experienced teachers/contributors.

Blessings everyone, peace be with you ;-)

 

[Rover_KE]

SHE

Sorry.