Grammar struggles

Can someone from the mod team please fix the thread title? 😳 As far as I know, you're supposed to use the infinitive after "will," right? 🤔

Don't get mad at me—grammar mistakes literally give me an itch. 🙂

hiddenmarlin14 said:Would anyone from the mod team be willing to please take a quick look at the thread title and fix the grammar if possible? 😳As far as I understand, shouldn't the infinitive follow the word "will"? 🤔

Please don't be mad at me; I just get this strange, restless itch whenever I spot a typo or a grammatical slip-up. 🙂

The title really caught my eye. 😁

Well, you're absolutely right if you were intending to use the future tense constructed from an infinitive and the unstressed present tense of "will."

But honestly, try looking on the bright side: protect could almost be read as an archaic way of saying read. We could just interpret the title to mean that Canada will be reading through American airspace. 🎉

By the way, whoever ends up fixing this, could they also please change that capital H in the adjective American to a lowercase one? ☕

It also deletes the space before the question mark. ☕

hiddenmarlin14 said:As far as I know, an infinitive should follow the word "will," right? 🤔

Usually, yes. But not always.

For instance:
1. He will get angry.
2. Mary will cook hot dogs for her husband. :gozba jaganjčeva:

1. In this case, "himself" isn't an infinitive; it's just a reflexive pronoun.
2. "His" functions as a possessive pronoun here.

Ethan Barrett22 said:Usually, yeah. But honestly, not always.

For example:
1. He’s going to get angry.
2. Mary is going to whip up some hot dogs for her husband. :gozba jaganjčeva:

1. "self" isn't an infinitive; it's just a reflexive pronoun.
2. "his own" functions as a reflexive possessive pronoun here.

🙄
The infinitive follows 'will,' though it doesn't have to be placed immediately after it.

But the real headache is how often people write 'protect' incorrectly by dropping letters, thinking they've used the right verb form when they haven't.

Linda Young38 said:🙄
The infinitive follows "will," though it doesn't necessarily have to be positioned immediately after it.

Why the eye roll?
That’s exactly what I was getting at. 😍

And then they went ahead and cited a few examples where that rule just doesn't hold up. 😛
It could follow three words later, especially looking at that second example I brought up.
Or even twenty-six words later, once the context has drifted so far from the word "will" that it makes zero sense to insist the infinitive must strictly follow right behind it...😁

For instance,
Mary will, for her handsome and brilliant husband—a Sagittarius who drives an expensive purple Jeep and hits the dirt tracks with it every Tuesday—perhaps on some beautiful, sunny spring afternoon, finally cook some hot dogs just to prove to Matthew Castillo5 that the infinitive absolutely does not need to sit right next to "will," even if it usually does, just as Elizabeth Jackson pointed out. 🎉

By that same logic, the past perfect would always have to come after the simple past. 😁
And the infinitive, naturally, would end up at the very end of everything. 😁

For a split second, I actually thought this was a Grammar 101 PDF and maybe, I don't know, felt like moderating this thread. 😁

-Chris Myers might actually want to moderate this thread one of these days

-Maybe Chris Myers will decide to take over moderation here eventually

🙂

Quote : intermezzo

Ethan Barrett22 said:Mostly yes. But then again, not always.

Examples:
They're going to be pissed.
Mary’s going to whip up some hot dogs for her husband. :lamb feast:

The word "se" isn't an infinitive; it’s just a reflexive pronoun.
"Svom" is just a reflexive-possessive pronoun in the dative case.

Quote : intermezzo

Linda Young38 said:🙄
The infinitive follows "to," though it doesn't necessarily have to come right after it.

Ali The issue is that people constantly write "protect" or "to protect" when they actually mean "to be protecting" or "to provide protection." It's a constant grammatical mess..

Thanks. 🙂
Quote : intermezzo

Elizabeth Jackson Asks: Why the eye roll? That’s exactly what I was getting at. And then he went on to list a few examples where that just isn't the case. 😛 It could easily go on for more than three words, especially given that second example I mentioned. Or maybe after 26. When people have already completely forgotten how to use "will," there's really no logic left in insisting that the infinitive is mandatory. He's coming up behind her...: D ...blabla...

🙂 I didn't write "immediately after," I just wrote "after." ☕

And after "will," you definitely don't follow up with a present tense verb. 😳

Chris Myers said:For a second there, I thought this thread was just going to be a massive PDF on linguistics. Honestly, made me want to jump in and moderate this mess. :D

I really thought one of the mods would finally step up and fix that headline. ☕

Alright, maybe I should just write:

And here I was, foolishly hoping one of the mods would finally step up and fix that headline. 🐔

Fine, I'm giving up. 😵

The owl was playing with its own shadow. 🙂