Stop shouting or stop to shout... how do I decide?
Muzzle
by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
e.g.
"stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
*"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
Michele
--
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[to mail me cut off "22"; per scrivermi togliete il "22"]
www.internations.net/it/muzzle
Grazie per essere arrivati fino all'ultima riga di questa messaggio.
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Aaron J. Dinkin
muz...@22freemail.it (Muzzle) wrote:
> Do you know a rule that can help me to decide whether a verb is followed
> by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
> e.g.
> "stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
> *"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
Your asterisks are wrong: "stop to shout" is not correct English, but "stop
shouting" is; "begin to tell" and "begin telling" are both correct.
There is no general rule; each verb works differently.
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
Richard Fontana
> In article <MPG.12efd4dce...@freenews.netfront.net>,
> muz...@22freemail.it (Muzzle) wrote:
>
> > Do you know a rule that can help me to decide whether a verb is followed
> > by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
> > e.g.
> > "stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
> > *"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
>
> Your asterisks are wrong: "stop to shout" is not correct English, but "stop
> shouting" is; "begin to tell" and "begin telling" are both correct.
"Stop to shout" can be correct if it means "pause or halt one's current
course of action in order to shout". Of course, "stop shouting" cannot
mean that.
Richard
Wolfgang Boehme
I think there is a rule: stop + infinitive = stop something to do something
else. He stopped shouting to hear what they were saying.
stop + gerund = stop (generally or even for good) The fact that he doesn't
know when to stop shouting usually makes her feel like boxing his ears.
I think this rule also applies to begin/start.
Correct me if necessary.
Wolfgang
Aaron J. Dinkin schrieb in Nachricht ...
>In article <MPG.12efd4dce...@freenews.netfront.net>,
>muz...@22freemail.it (Muzzle) wrote:
>
>> Do you know a rule that can help me to decide whether a verb is followed
>> by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
>> e.g.
>> "stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
>> *"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
>
>Your asterisks are wrong: "stop to shout" is not correct English, but "stop
>shouting" is; "begin to tell" and "begin telling" are both correct.
>
Aaron J. Dinkin
<Pine.GSO.4.10.100011...@sawasdee.cc.columbia.edu>,
Richard Fontana <re...@columbia.edu> wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Jan 2000, Aaron J. Dinkin wrote:
>
> > In article <MPG.12efd4dce...@freenews.netfront.net>,
> > muz...@22freemail.it (Muzzle) wrote:
> >
> > > Do you know a rule that can help me to decide whether a verb is followed
> > > by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
> > > e.g.
> > > "stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
> > > *"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
> >
> > Your asterisks are wrong: "stop to shout" is not correct English, but "stop
> > shouting" is; "begin to tell" and "begin telling" are both correct.
>
> "Stop to shout" can be correct if it means "pause or halt one's current
> course of action in order to shout". Of course, "stop shouting" cannot
> mean that.
Richard is correct, of course. I should have said that "stop to shout" was
wrong with the meaning intended.
P&D Schultz
>
> In article <MPG.12efd4dce...@freenews.netfront.net>,
> muz...@22freemail.it (Muzzle) wrote:
>
> > Do you know a rule that can help me to decide whether a verb is followed
> > by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
> > e.g.
> > "stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
> > *"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
> There is no general rule; each verb works differently.
Also, a good dictionary will tell you. Mine defines "stop" as "to desist
from," and it gives the example "to stop running."
Many linguists call such facts "categorial information," or information
about usage specific to that word that comes packaged along with the
word (which is why you have to look it up if you don't know it). They
would say that the verb "stop" subcategorizes for an "-ing"-verb
complement (or something like that).
//P. Schultz
Lois
: Do you know a rule that can help me to decide whether a verb is followed
: by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
: e.g.
: "stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
: *"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
The rule with "stop" is that if a person stops and then does another action,
it's stop + infinitive. If a person is doing an action and then stops it,
it's stop + gerund ("ing" form). Examples:
He was working and then he stopped to smoke.
He didn't want to smoke any more. He stopped smoking.
Both of your examples with "stop" are correct. The first one means that the
person stopped and then shouted, and the second one means that the person
was shouting, and then stopped this action.
The same rule works with the verb "remember."
For other verbs, there isn't a rule except that some verbs can only take
either an infinitive or a gerund after them, and others can take both.
"Begin" can take both, so both examples with "begin" are correct. This isn't
a rule, but generally, the infinitive suggests that the action is more in
the future OR is not a routine one, while the gerund suggests that it's
closer to the present or past OR is more routine. Again, this is not a rule,
but if you try it out with different verbs, you'll find that it works most
of the time.
A website with this grammar point is at
http://esl.about.com/education/esl/library/weekly/aa090999.htm.
Lois
Dave Volek
Muzzle wrote in message ...
|Do you know a rule that can help me to decide whether a
verb is followed
|by an -ing form or an infinitive one?
|e.g.
|"stop to shout" or *"stop shouting"
|*"begin to tell" or "begin telling"
|
This is an excellent question. I used to tell my students
that there was little difference between the two: they could
choose which works best. For example, "He began to tell his
story" is, for practical purposes, equivalant to "He began
telling his story." I think there is a very slight
difference in meaning, but I can't figure it out--and it
probably is not important enough.
However, "He stopped shouting" is not equivalent to "He
stopped to shout." In the first case, the shouting stopped.
In the second case, the shouting actually started after he
stopped. In this second case, "to" is not part of the
infinitive; it takes on a preposition to mean "for purpose
of." What, (I can hear you asking), makes "to" a
preposition in this case but a part of the infinitive in
other case?
I have no idea, but I suspect the answer lies in some very
complicated concepts of the English language. One could
either do research to satisfy his or her analytical desires
or just accept that the verb "stop" has an exception. But
if someone has some insight, I too would like to hear about
it. This is an interesting question.
Ain't English fun?
Dave Volek
Instructor
Black Gold Online
www.ppent.ca/blackgold
Practise Your Business English with Students Around the
World
Laura Jacquez Valentine
> From: "Dave Volek" <py...@ezpost.com>
> Newsgroups: misc.education.language.english
> Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 15:33:47 -0700
>
>
> I have no idea, but I suspect the answer lies in some very
> complicated concepts of the English language. One could
> either do research to satisfy his or her analytical desires
> or just accept that the verb "stop" has an exception. But
> if someone has some insight, I too would like to hear about
> it. This is an interesting question.
It's some obnoxious fiddly bit about what kind of verb "shout" is. It
may be in Paul Hopper's "A Short Course in English Grammar", so I'll
look at my copy tonight and see.
--laura