[Grammar] The general commanded the Officer's Club be off limits to the new recuit.

[wotcha]

1. The general commanded the Officer's Club be off limits to the new recruit.

My grammar books says the above is ungrammatical because we can't omit 'that'

after command. Is my grammar book right?


also,


2. The general commanded the Officer's Club to be off limits to the new recruit.


What about sentence 2? Are both 1 and 2 grammatical?

 

[Tdol]

I wouldn't use either of them.

 

[Barb_D]

There's no need for "that."
She ordered the tarragon be omitted from the soup.
The Red Queen ordered Allice's head be removed.

 

[Tdol]

Ordered is a much better verb.

 

[5jj]

There's no need for "that."
She ordered the tarragon be omitted from the soup.
The Red Queen ordered Allice's head be removed.

I accept that those are correct, but I think they are unnatural. We'd normally say:

He ordered the chef to remove the tarragon from the soup.
The Red Queen ordered the (whoever) to remove Alice's head/to chop off Alice's head.

 

[SoothingDave]

I think that new recruits are not officers, so they should know not to go to the Officers' Club.

 

[emsr2d2]

Regardless of the rest of it, the general didn't command or order The Officer's Club to do or to be anything.

He ordered that the Officers' Club be off limits to new recruits.
He ordered the new recruits to consider the Officers' Club off limits.

 

[Barb_D]

Ordered is a much better verb.

So much so that I was unaware that I'd even substituted it!