too late to

[navi tasan]

Which are correct:

1-He arrived at four o'clock, too late to invite to lunch.
2-He arrived at four o'clock, too late to invite him to lunch.

3-He arrived at four o'clock, too late for us to invite to lunch.
4-He arrived at four o'clock, too late for us to invite him to lunch.



These get me confused. I would go with '1' and '3' myself, but I am not at all sure.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello, navi tasan.:-D
Please let me try.

With the addition of 'and it was' before 'too late [...]', I would choose #2 and #4:

He arrived at four o'clock, and it was too late to invite him to lunch.
He arrived at four o'clock, and it was too late for us to invite him to lunch. (I prefer this one.)

However, it seems to me that you think of those sentences (#1 and #3) as:

"He arrived at four o'clock [the first adverbial phrase modifying the verb 'arrived'], too late [the second adverbial phrase modifying 'arrived'] (for us) to invite to lunch."

The problem is that I'm not sure if the comma is used correctly.
If it is, then #1 and #3 are OK, and #2 and #4 don't sound OK to me:

He arrived too late to invite to lunch. (It sounds OK to me.)
He arrived too late to invite him to lunch. (It doesn't.)
He arrived too late for us to invite to lunch. (It does.)
He arrived too late for us to invite him to lunch. (It doesn't)

I hope I'm not talking nonsense.

 

[navi tasan]

I don't think you are talking nonsense, but if you are not sure, you better let someone who knows what they are doing answer the question.

Respectfully,
Navi.

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello, navi tasan.:-D

You are right.
I wanted to help you, and I tried as hard as I could. But as you can see, this is all I can do for you at the moment. I'm sorry.
I will shut up now and wait for other members to sort out your problem.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would go with 1 or 4, and I prefer 4.

In two, it the sense I get is that "he" was going to invite "him" to lunch. If "him" is the same person as "he", the sentence makes no sense. If "him" is a different person, the meaning is different.

The third is awkward in my opinion; it seems to want an object after "invite".

 

[Tdol]

I prefer 4 too.

 

[emsr2d2]

4 is the best for me too, although I don't have much of a problem with 2 or 3. The only one I really don't like is 1.