CyberCypher
Guest
|
| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 6:07 am
Post subject: Re: Infinitives with go/come |
|
|
Brian wrote on 12 Nov 2004:
| Quote: | I've noticed that infinitives after forms of "go" or "come"
generally need the word "to":
He's gone to help her.
*He's gone help her.
She's coming to work on homework with me.
*She's coming work on homework with me.
However, if "go" or "come" is either a command or an infinitive,
the following infinitive doesn't need the "to":
Go help her.
?Go to help her.
She wants to come work on homework with me.
?She wants to come to work on homework with me.
What's going on here? Are there other words that have a similar
pattern?
|
If you stick in an "and" where the "to" isn't supposed to be, then
it's idiomatic:
"Go and help her"
"She wants to come and work on her homework with me".
OTOH, I don't see anything wrong with "She wants to come
({over/here}) ((in order) to) work on her homework with me."
With "to", it appears to mean "Go there in order to help her" With
"and, it appears to mean "Do two things. One, go there. Two, help
her."
"Come help me" (not one of your sentences, but what the hell) appears
to mean "Come over here and help me", so "Come and help me" would be
fine. "Come to help me" seems fine to me too. But I grant that
including "to" isn't always idiomatic even if grammatically and
semantically correct.
--
Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet. |
|
FAQ
Memberlist
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in