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Is 'We will do your best in order to ensure the debate be vivid and fruitful.' a grammatically correct sentence?

I am not sure if I used the infinitive correctly, is it better to place simply 'is' instead of 'be'?

geaperard
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  • "We will do our best in order to ensure the debate will be vivid and fruitful." You can also use "is", but it is better to use the future tense. I've flagged this as an English learning question and it is probably not appropriate here. – Cord May 25 '15 at 09:42
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    What I find odd about this is "We will do your best..". In English, we can do our best, and you can do your best, but we cannot do your best! – Brian Hitchcock May 25 '15 at 11:38
  • You cannot ensure (make certain) that a debate will take place in a particular way or have a predicted outcome. A debate is where speakers are encouraged to put forward opposing views and discuss them, so by its very nature, cannot be controlled. You can however, do your best to ensure the conditions are in place to facilitate or promote (give the opportunity and encourage) a vivid and fruitful debate. For example, you could write 'We will do our best to facilitate a vivid and fruitful debate'. – Julie Carter May 25 '15 at 12:48
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    This question is not mere proofreading, because a particular concern (use of be or is) has been noted. – Andrew Leach May 27 '15 at 18:18

1 Answers1

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Be is not an infinitive here; it is a subjunctive. You cannot order that something is so unless you are omnipotent: you can give orders that it should become so, perhaps order that the flag be raised (Is would be wrong there). On the other hand, you cannot believe that something be the case: I believe the flag is now flying. It is not clear which side of the divide ensure falls on. Myself I think this use is performative, and so be is wrong as a hypercorrection, but the author obviously disagrees.

Tim Lymington
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