sanctus Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 In some official letter I recently read at the end: "We look forward to hearing from you" as it was official I think it is right. But at school learning english, one always hears that after "to" always comes the "infinite form", ie. after school-english the above sentence should be "We look forward to hear from you". Were they wrong or is this an exeption? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatstep Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 It's correct.I was looking over the rules between gerund and infinitive and it seems to be an exception.Gerund - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanctus Posted June 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 So you are not sure that it is an expetion?Thanks for the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tormod Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 I always thought this was because "to look forward to" is a phrase. The last "to" does not imply verb case but is a preposition. Consider this phrase: Hearing from you is always niceas compared toHear from you is always nice The second phrase is meaningless. look forward to english grammar learn english Chacmool 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanctus Posted June 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 Wow, now everything is clear thanks very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric l Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 I always thought this was because "to look forward to" is a phrase. The last "to" does not imply verb case but is a preposition. Consider this phrase: Hearing from you is always niceas compared toHear from you is always nice The second phrase is meaningless. look forward to english grammar learn english Still, it is always nice to hear from you !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfiniteNow Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 If they *really* wanted to make it sound official, they could have instead opted to write, "We look forward to your response." ;) Who can "hear" a letter, anyway? :) Chacmool 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chacmool Posted June 22, 2007 Report Share Posted June 22, 2007 I always thought this was because "to look forward to" is a phrase. The last "to" does not imply verb case but is a preposition. Consider this phrase: Hearing from you is always niceas compared toHear from you is always nice The second phrase is meaningless. look forward to english grammar learn englishTormod provides a perfect explanation! Gee, you'd think English was his first language. Nicely done, T! If they *really* wanted to make it sound official, they could have instead opted to write, "We look forward to your response." ;) Who can "hear" a letter, anyway? :)I agree with InfiniteNow that this version seems more appropriate for the context. Well spotted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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