Friday, June 23, 2017

When the adjective 'suited' is followed by a verb, should this verb be in the infinitive or in the -ing form?

Here are some example sentences from different dictionaries.




With her qualifications and experience, she would seem to be ideally suited to/for the job. (Cambridge online dictionary)




This was a job to which he seemed well suited. / He is not really suited for a teaching career. (Oxford Learners' Dictionary online)



Satellites are uniquely suited to provide this information. (Collins online dictionary)




Why not to providing?




He is not suited to teaching. (Le Robert et Collins, dictionnaire français-anglais, paper version)





Why not to teach?



When followed by a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun, the adjective suited must be followed by the preposition to or for, that much is clear.



But when it is followed by a verb?



Is it to be suited to do something (full infinitive, preposition to or for dropped, Collins's example sentence) or to be suited to/for doing something (gerund, preposition maintained, Le Robert et Collins's example sentence)?




Does the type of subject – person (he) or thing (satellites) – have an influence on the structure one should use, or not?



It is not obvious that the adjective/verb-followed-by-noun and the adjective/verb-followed-by-verb structures should match, as is NOT the case in




to be scared of something / to remind someone of something




versus





to be scared to do something / to remind someone to do something




but not




to remind someone of doing something *!





However, note that




to be scared of doing something




is possible, but with a change of meaning from intentional to accidental – I suppose – as in to be afraid to do something (to choose not to do something which is in your willpower, to avoid doing it – intentional, voluntary) versus to be afraid of doing something (to try to avoid something unpleasant happening to you – if it did happen, that would be accidental, involuntary).



These things are much more complicated than either the dictionaries or the grammar books make them out to be!




Unfortunately, many monolingual dictionaries not aimed at foreign learners do not give example sentences of adjectives/verbs followed by verbs because they do not even realize that choosing the form the verb should be in IS a difficulty!

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