Questions from Jeff

[yawu0109]

1. I would doubt the usage of "of" in the following sentence " Television, the most pervasive and persussive of modern technologies......" the word "of" here seems to be redundant, am I right?

2. I've got a sentence on the internet " All I have to to is learn English." I am a bit confused about the difference betwen the above one and the one: "All I have to do is learning English.", and the other one : " All I have to do is to learn English."

Thanks

Jeff

[bmass]

1. No, the use of 'of' is not redundant in that sentance (also, it is spelt persuassive).

2. "All I have to do is to learn English" is correct; whereas "All I have to do is learning English" is not, because learning denotes a process that is occuring at the present time, whereas the context of the sentance places the action of learning English, in a future time. Essentially, the tense of the context needs to match the tense of the words.

[Teia]

1. I would doubt the usage of "of" in the following sentence " Television, the most pervasive and persussive of modern technologies......" the word "of" here seems to be redundant, am I right?
2. I've got a sentence on the internet " All I have to to is learn English." I am a bit confused about the difference betwen the above one and the one: "All I have to do is learning English.", and the other one : " All I have to do is to learn English."
Thanks
Jeff

Hi Jeff

Both sentences are correct !

2.[a] All I have to do is learn English.
learn - infinitive
[To] learn English is all I have to do.

2.[b] All I have to do is learning English.
Let me put it some other way :
Learning English is all I have to do.
learning - gerund
Gerunds function as nouns. "Learning" is the subject of the sentence.
Infinitives can function as nouns too.
For further information see:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handou...g_verbals.html

Regards,

[dihen]

"All I have to do is learn English."
`
Can I say "I only have to learn English." instead?

[bmass]

Yes. Both statements are correct, and would mean the same thing in post cases, barring drasticly diffrentiated contexts of the paragraph it was in, where the meaing of each could very slightly change.

[Teia]

"All I have to do is learn English."
`
Can I say "I only have to learn English." instead?

Hi Dihen

The meaning of your sentence is different from the one you refer to.
"All I have to do..." means "I have no alternative but ..../I have the obligation to learn English /I am obliged to learn English otherwise I cannot keep my job"[ it`s just an example of many more].

"I only have to learn English" means "I have to learn English and nothing else or more ".

only - adv.[ in this context ]meaning "and nothing else or more".

Anyway, the real difference or a better understanding of the sentence might depend on the context.

Keep in touch

[dihen]

Hi Dihen
`
The meaning of your sentence is different from the one you refer to.
`
"All I have to do..." means "I have no alternative but ..../I have the obligation to learn English /I am obliged to learn English otherwise I cannot keep my job"[ it`s just an example of many more].
`
"I only have to learn English" means "I have to learn English and nothing else or more ".
`
only - adv.[ in this context ]meaning "and nothing else or more".
`
Anyway, the real difference or a better understanding of the sentence might depend on the context.
Keep in touch

Really? Doesn't "All I have to do is learn English." mean "All I have to do is learn English, and that's all/ and nothing else."?

[Teia]

Really? Doesn't "All I have to do is learn English." mean "All I have to do is learn English, and that's all/ and nothing else."?

Hi Dihen

I think that between "All I have to do is ..." and "I only have to do is..." there is a slight difference of meaning . Bmass has responded to the question better than I did.

Keep in touch