I decided the only thing to do was to go back up the mountain to get it

[milan2003_07]

Good afternoon everyone,

The sentences below have been taken from the Students' Book entitled "English File. Pre-Intermediate" by Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive Oxenden, Jerry Lambert, and Paul Seligson.

The sentences are from the story about a group of friends who went for a long walk in the mountains and one of them lost his phone there. To be more precise, he didn't actually lose his phone, but he believed at first that he had lost it. It turned out to be in his jacket pocket and when the phone had finally been found, they (the group of friends) altogether returned to their camp located at the top of the mountain.

"It's [the phone is] probably at the top of the mountain, where we had lunch. I decided the only thing to do was to go back up the mountain to get it, because I didn't want to leave my phone up there".

Can we omit "to"?

"It's [the phone is] probably at the top of the mountain, where we had lunch. I decided the only thing to do was go back up the mountain to get it, because I didn't want to leave my phone up there".

 

[jutfrank]

Yes.

 

[Tarheel]

... It turned out to be in his jacket pocket and when the phone WAS FINALLY found, they (the group of friends) altogether returned to their camp located at the top of the mountain.

...

Yes. It's OK.

What is "altogether" doing there?

 

[milan2003_07]

Yes, "altogether" is probably unnecessary. I meant that they all went down the mountain after the phone had been found.

 

[Tarheel]

The thing is that with "they" you have already said what you needed to say. The reader will assume you mean all of them unless you specify otherwise.