1

which is grammatical between the two sentences below?

  1. We end up not being able to deal with new situations.

  2. We end up being not able to deal with new situations.

user306068
  • 11
  • They are both grammatical. So is: We end up being unable to deal with new situations. Do you have a particular reason to question one of the constructions? – Jason Bassford Jul 04 '18 at 14:25
  • Thanks so much ^^ I just wondered about the exact position of the word 'not'. I thought #1 is more grammatical because 'not' usually comes before the gerund and 'be able to' is common fixed usage - so it seems awkward to put 'not' between 'being' and 'able'~. – user306068 Jul 05 '18 at 01:50

1 Answers1

1

Both are grammatical.

Having said that, Google Books Ngram Viewer suggests that the more common version is 1.

I personally prefer:

We end up being unable to deal with new situations.

However, adding that phrase into a new Ngram query shows that 1. remains the most common.

Jason Bassford
  • 38,040