to hear or hearing ..grammar ?
By RUBESH
@Manasha (2754)
Pondicherry, India
3 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Sep 12
The correct sentence is:
"I am looking forward to hearing from you."
You can say "I would like to hear from you" but the verb "to look forward to [something]" requires a noun or noun phrase. Similarly:
"[b]I look forward to ...
... travelling to Mumbai."
... seeing you."
... learning English."
... eating at that restaurant."
... flying in a balloon."[/b]
The verbs 'to anticipate [something]' and 'to remember [something that happened in the past]' also take the same construction. Notice that 'to remember [to do something]' DOES have the infinitive verb after it and has a different meaning:
"I remembered taking my key with me." means something quite different to "I remembered to take my key with me."
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Sep 12
I think that the confusion arises because of the word 'to'.
In 'I look forward to ...' it is used as a 'directional' word in the same sense that one 'goes to a place'. In other words it is an indispensable part of the verb 'to look forward to' and NOT an infinitive marker.
You can also say "I look forward" without the preposition (meaning "I look to the front"), for example: "When driving a car safely, one should always look forward, except when reversing."
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@Juliyan23 (600)
• Indonesia
17 Sep 12
Wow Thank you very very much.
I've been assuming that after "look forward to" always be verb 1. Yes, the word "to" has been the reason why I thought mistakenly .
And anyway, correct me if I'm wrong please..
"I stopped reading the novel" = it means that I stopped reading the novel to do something else .
"I stopped to reading the novel " = it means that I stopped doing anything else to start reading the novel.
And actually I'm still bit lost with the different meaning from your statement :
"I remembered taking my key with me" = it means that I remembered taking my key with me.
"I remembered to take my key with me" = ?
@Kaylant (11)
•
17 Sep 12
yeah i think it depend in area you stay. but i think the first sentence is the correct one. my teacher ever told me "if we already use V+ing in front of the sentences, we use V1 in the tail of that sentences
hope i help :)
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Sep 12
That rule is incorrect (at least in this instance). See my explanation below.
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
17 Sep 12
I explain the correct usage below. The same applies where ever English is spoken.
