Rather than lose money

[rkatk]

Extracted from: Tax Reduction Proposals: Hearings Before the Committee on Finance

The point is that to put this thing on a realistic basis would make money for the Government rather than lose money to the Government. (Original)

Can I use "rather than losing" instead of "rather than lose" in the sentence? Would that be grammatically right?

The point is that to put this thing on a realistic basis would make money for the Government rather than losing money to the Government

 

[GoesStation]

Please tell us where you found the text. Just providing its name isn't enough.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

To see why it's lose, diagram the sentence or Google parallel grammar.

And yes, tell us where you got it.

 

[Tdol]

It would be OK, but the original is better.

 

[rkatk]

Please tell us where you found the text. Just providing its name isn't enough.

If you type "rather than lose money to " in randomly on the google site, a lot of sentences will show up . One of them is what I found on the google search site. I googled it to learn the usage of "rather than ," and the page below is what I found and saw the sentence on the search page.

"rather than lose money to"


P.S. Is there something wrong I don't know? If so, please, let me know.

 

[jutfrank]

I can't remember if the suspended posts answered the question (I assume they did) but I'll answer again anyway, now that the OP has responded to post #2.

The point is that to put this thing on a realistic basis would make money for the Government rather than lose money to the Government.

Can you see how both blue phrases are in the same base form? That's because they are in parallel, both with the modal verb would as an auxiliary. Only the base form of the verb following a modal verb is correct.


(Sorry about the unusual font here. I can't seem to make it normal. I don't know what the issue is.)
[MODERATOR EDIT]
I've fixed it for you — see below post.

 

[GoesStation]

(Sorry about the unusual font here. I can't seem to make it normal. I don't know what the issue is.)

I've cleaned it up. For future reference, there's a sledgehammer method to return everything to the defaults. Select the entire post and click the mystery icon with a red X overlaying two As, one grey and one red, that you'll find in the top left-hand corner of the editor. It's the "remove formatting" button.

The drawback to this approach: it does what it says and removes all your formatting. You'll have to redo anything you want to keep.

I've also reinstated the deleted posts.

 

[rkatk]

I can't remember if the suspended posts answered the question (I assume they did) but I'll answer again anyway, now that the OP has responded to post #2.

The point is that to put this thing on a realistic basis would make money for the Government rather than lose money to the Government.

Can you see how both blue phrases are in the same base form? That's because they are in parallel, both with the modal verb would as an auxiliary. Only the base form of the verb following a modal verb is correct.

Thank you for your advice and I totally understand what you are explaining. But, what I want to know about is whether I can use " rather than" as a preposition phrase in the sentence.

 

[rkatk]

It would be OK, but the original is better.

Thank you. So, You are saying the use of the preposition phrase would be OK in the sentence despite there being "would make" , right?

 

[jutfrank]

what I want to know about is whether I can use " rather than" as a preposition phrase in the sentence.

Sorry, I don't really understand what you're asking or why.

The correct form is losing, not lose.