It takes up lots of his time watching TV

[chance22]

Is the sentence "It takes up lots of his time watching TV" grammatically correct？It sounds all right to me because I can interprete it as "watching TV takes up lots of his time", but I'm not sure about it. Some people argue it should be expressed in this way: "It takes up lots of his time to watching TV." Could you explain it for me? Thank you very much.

 

[Tdol]

I don't like either of the 'it takes' versions, and there is no case at all to argue for using 'to watching', which is simply an error to me. The first is something that might occur in conversation, or you could punctuate it with a dash or colon, but it's a pretty ugly sentence. 'Watching TV takes up a lot of his time' is the version I would use.

 

[chance22]

I don't like either of the 'it takes' versions, and there is no case at all to argue for using 'to watching', which is simply an error to me. The first is something that might occur in conversation, or you could punctuate it with a dash or colon, but it's a pretty ugly sentence. 'Watching TV takes up a lot of his time' is the version I would use.

Sorry I've made a mistake.It takes up lots of his time "to watch TV" instead of to watching TV.Then is this sentence acceptable? Looking forward to your help. Thank you again.

 

[emsr2d2]

Sorry I've made a mistake.It takes up lots of his time "to watch TV" instead of to watching TV.Then is this sentence acceptable? Looking forward to your help. Thank you again.

This sentence can't be constructed using "to watch" at all. As the previous poster said, "Watching TV takes up a lot of his time" is a good version. You can't really combine the action of watching TV in the same sentence as "It takes up a lot of his time". You could say:

He watches too much TV. It takes up a lot of his time.

However, of course, that involves two sentences, not one!

 

[bhaisahab]

How about: "A lot of his time is taken up watching TV".

 

[chance22]

OK, I got it. Thank emsr2d2 and bhaisahab.