Subj : Trump's 2019 budget
To   : alexander koryagin
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Mon Jun 25 2018 00:06:02

Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Anton Shepelev:

 AK>> I prone to think that it was an accurate article title
 AK>> "Trump's 2019 budget".

 ak>  Ah, "I am prone to think".


           Uh-huh.  I tend to think Alexander will see such errors for himself 
if I just sit back & wait awhile... as he did there.  As Anton has pointed out 
"prone" is not a verb.  OTOH "tend" is, so the rules are a bit different.  :-)



 ak>  Although, recently, somebody told me here that "to be"
 ak>  could be omitted when things are clear without it. ;-)


           Sometimes, as in "He thought it rather strange that there was a car 
hanging from the underside of the Granville Street Bridge."  The repetition of 
"was" in such cases would sound unnecessary at best to many native speakers of 
English.  One must be careful, however, not to read too much into what one has 
been told about xxx and/or (to) assume (that) the same applies to yyy....  :-)



 AS>  I tend to think, or incline to the opiniton that...

 ak>  It is also correct, I think.


           While I see a typo in "opinion", I'm content with the grammar.  ;-)



 AS>  I fear you cannot call a budget project a book :-)

 ak>  Have you seen the book photograph at the URL I provided?
 ak>  (no "to be" again before "provided").


           I'd be more inclined to call it a document, but in this part of the 
world some proposed legislation could easily fill a book... [wry grin].

           Now, as for the grammar... "I provided" is correct.  You could have 
said "which I provided", but "which" is optional in such situations.  The only 
reason I can think of offhand for using "to be" with a transitive verb such as 
"provide" is that you are using the passive voice because you don't want to go 
into detail or because you don't know who did whatever.  Dallas & I have found 
ourselves asked to attend meetings, e.g., where "lunch will be provided".  One 
might also say "Mrs. Smith's car has been stolen" for similar reasons....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

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