[Grammar] to see/see/seeing

[LQZ]

Dear teacher,

Could you please tell me which of the following works for you and why? Thanks.

1 Recruiters can search through the database free, but to send a message to a Jibe member will cost as much money as to see a full profile .

2 Recruiters can search through the database free, but to send a message to a Jibe member will cost as much money as see a full profile .

3 Recruiters can search through the database free, but to send a message to a Jibe member will cost as much money as seeing a full profile .

LQZ

 

[leonwool]

3 is good using the continuous. 2 is by far the worst and is definitely wrong.

We can't use the bare infinitive here.
To send a message to a member will cost as much money as see a full profile .

The bare infinitive is more direct and imperative.

"Let me go" - Here go is more direct than 'see' in your sentence 2.

So after LET, HELP , you have the direct bare infinitive but after other verbs another of the verb forms is more appropriate.

 

[LQZ]

Thank you, leonwool.

How about the first? I read some sentences as to the structure of "as+adjective+noun+as", interestingly in which the subjects and the nouns after the second "as"(s) are in the same form. For examples,

1 Halting new deforestation, experts say, is as powerful a way to combat warming as closing the world’s coal plants.
2 The pest could pose as big a threat to cotton farming in the South as the beetle that devastated the industry in the early 20th century.

These examples are taken from the NYT. As we see, the second structure parallels the first. That's why I wonder if the origianl first sounds fine to your native ears.

Looking forward to your help.


LQZ

 

[leonwool]

I don't feel any alarms when I read the first one. It seems as though the form can change sometimes but I think that the form will usually be mirrored as in your examples.

 

[LQZ]

Thanks, leonwool. I will keep an eye on this structure.