I have in mind

[navi tasan]

Which is correct:

1) This is the letter I have in mind to send to the manager.

2) This is the letter I have in mind sending to the manager.

 

[Amigos4]

1)

 

[Tarheel]

I composed a brief dialogue. (Because I can.)

Bob: This is the letter I'm sending to the manager. Should I make any changes?
Sally: No, it's fine.

 

[Holmes]

Which is correct:

1) This is the letter I have in mind to send to the manager.

2) This is the letter I have in mind sending to the manager.

Hello, Navi—I'd use (2). There is a relative clause modifying "letter": "[which] I have in mind sending to the manager." The omitted relative pronoun functions as the object "sending." Thus, your underlying question is whether (1a) or (2a) is grammatically correct:

(1a) I have in mind to send it to the manager.
(2a) I have in mind sending it to the manager.

I greatly prefer (2a) to (1a). "Sending it to the manager" may be parsed as the post-posed direct object of "have." What do you have in mind? Sending it to the manager. It is sending it to the manager that you have in mind. You have [sending it to the manager] in mind.

 

[jutfrank]

I don't think either sentence is very clear but I think 1) better expresses what I think you mean, which is that there's an intention for action.

The infinitive to send expresses better the intentionality, as well as the directionality of the sending. It's the same use as when you say I intend to send it ... rather than I intend sending it ...

So for me it rests on the interpretation of have in mind. Mine is this:

I have in mind to send it = I intend to send it

 

[emsr2d2]

Of the two, I also find only the first usable. However, I don't find it very natural. I don't like the use of "sending to the manager" after "I have in mind". I'd reorder it to "This is the letter to the manager [that] I have in mind" or I'd make it longer (and two sentences) with something like "I have to write a letter to the manager. This is the wording I have in mind". The use of "have in mind" suggests that you haven't finalised the wording of the letter and you're still considering whether to send it as it is or change it.

 

[Holmes]

The use of "have in mind" suggests that you haven't finalised the wording of the letter and you're still considering whether to send it as it is or change it.

Yes, that is exactly the meaning and general context of the sentence that I am 99.9% certain inspired Navi's question. It was I who wrote the original sentence, in an e-mail to the real Navi. My sentence was different (see below), but it corresponds in all grammatically relevant features to (2):

"I wanted to share with you the e-mail I have in mind sending to [person's name], [a major publishing company's] C.E.O., perhaps including on the Cc line the recipients from my original e-mail exchange with [the major publishing company], leading up to [that company's] destructive act."

It appears I may be mistaken in thinking "have in mind" takes an -ing complement in a sentence like that. I am not going to try to defend my use of "sending" as opposed to "to send." I was simply saying what naturally came to me as a native speaker of American English.

 

[Tarheel]

Perhaps:

the email I'm thinking of sending to ....

 

[White Hat]

I have in mind sending this letter to the manager.
This is the letter I have in mind sending to the manager.

Compare that with the following:
I look forward to meeting this chessplayer next Friday.
This the chessplayer I look forward to meeting next Friday.

I think Holmes has a point there.

 

[jutfrank]

I see now that I misinterpreted the intended meaning. We now know from Holmes' explanation that have in mind relates to the letter (the wording) rather than the sending, which is what I first thought.

I have in mind sending this letter to the manager.
This is the letter I have in mind sending to the manager.

For me, this is okay but I don't think it carries the intended meaning. With this form, have in mind relates to the sending, not the letter.

 

[White Hat]

I actually wrote that with Post No. 4 in mind.

 

[White Hat]

I wonder if it would technically be correct to say 'This is the letter I have in mind the sending of to the manager'.

 

[Rover_KE]

It wouldn't.

 

[White Hat]

I was just trying to draw a parallel between 'This is the letter I have in mind sending to the manager' and 'This is the letter I have in mind the sending of to the manager'. It looks like only the former would be correct.

 

[Tarheel]

@White Hat I suppose some people talk like that.