spend

Hi there,
I found the following example from a dictionary,but it is grammatically incorrect. Am I right?


He believed in spending half an hour each day to relax and commune with nature.

It should be:
He believed in spending half an hour each day RELAXING and COMMUNING with nature.

Simon

[engee30]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi there,
I found the following example from a dictionary,but it is grammatically incorrect. Am I right?


He believed in spending half an hour each day to relax and commune with nature.

It should be:
He believed in spending half an hour each day RELAXING and COMMUNING with nature.

Simon

Everything's fine, Simon.
Look at the following:
He spent half an hour each day relaxing and communing with nature.
Here, we know that he spent that particular time doing something.

In He believed in spending half an hour each day to relax and commune with nature, the purpose (and not the action) of his spending half an hour each day is to relax and commune with nature; we don't actually know whether or not he spent that time relaxing and communing with nature. All we know is that he believed in such an idea.

________________
I am not a teacher!

[Teia]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi there,
I found the following example from a dictionary,but it is grammatically incorrect. Am I right?


He believed in spending half an hour each day to relax and commune with nature.

It should be:
He believed in spending half an hour each day RELAXING and COMMUNING with nature.

Simon

He believed in spending half an hour each day/ to relax and commune with nature./.- correct
The sentence in blue is the main clause.
The sentence in red is a purpose clause. The most common type of purpose clause is a to-infinitive clause.

He believed in spending half an hour each day in order to relax and commune with nature.

In formal writing, in order to and so as to are often used.

[Soup]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi there,
I found the following example from a dictionary,but it is grammatically incorrect. Am I right?

You're right. (I have to disagree with engee30 and teia on this one.) It looks like a purpose clause: in order to relax and commune with nature, but it isn't, and here's why I know that.



First, adverbials can move around, this one can't:

He believed in spending half an hour each day to relax and commune with nature.
To relax and commune with nature, he believed in spending half an hour each day.

Second, if you omit a purpose clause from a sentence, the result shouldn't leave a fragment; this one does:

He believed in spending half an hour each day to relax and commune with nature.
He believed in spending half an hour each day.

In short, our infinitive phrase doesn't work as a purpose clause, as an adverbial. It's an integral part of the verb's structure: spend time doing something,

He believed in spending half an hour each day relaxing and communing with nature.