"To do this or do that" or "to do this or to do that"?

Question

I saw on the bottom of an email:

To change your email preferences or unsubscribe from certain messages, click here.

Is that correct or should it be:

To change your email preferences or to unsubscribe from certain messages, click here.

"To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." — apaderno, Dec 16 '11 at 01:46
Related: Repeat the preposition in an “or” phrase, or not? — RegDwigнt, Apr 03 '12 at 18:27

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

7

Either is grammatically correct: eliding the to would be called ellipsis, and it is normal in English. The second to is redundant when considering the previously supplied grammatical context. Consider the following ellipsis:

Original: To change your preferences or to change your subscription list, click here.

Ellipsis: To change your preferences or your subscription list, click here.

Here, the second to change is redundant, and can grammatically be removed. You could also omit the second your:

Ellipsis: To change your preferences or subscription list, click here.

While either will (almost always) be acceptable, ellipsis is generally preferred because of efficiency.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered Dec 16 '11 at 01:15

Daniel

57,547

Thanks! Is one preferred over the other? Is one more formal or used more often in different regions? or are they both always acceptable? – Adam Dec 16 '11 at 01:27
3

Neither will be condemned (unless the world happens to be much worse than I'd noticed), but ellipsis is usually better, unless you are trying to be very clear. It's not a predominantly formal phenomenon, nor is it predominantly informal. Also, as far as I know, there isn't much consistent dialectical difference as to ellipsis. – Daniel Dec 16 '11 at 01:33
You can even cut one more word in most contexts. You can say, "To do this or that". – David Schwartz Dec 16 '11 at 03:25
2

Ellipsis is really only frowned upon in cases where it could create ambiguity, IMHO. – Karl Knechtel Dec 16 '11 at 09:54
@Karl: 'is'or should be'? – Tim Lymington Jan 10 '12 at 13:59

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 16 '11 at 07:04

1

Disambiguation. Please repeat the to; after all saving two alphabets does not count for efficiency.

Let the user not be taxed with a grammatical ellipsis. (I had a mind to say 'Let not the user...'), but why not make it simpler.

answered Dec 16 '11 at 07:04

Kris

37,386

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 21 '12 at 10:43

0

I guess it should be "to do this or to do that". This goes more with the flow and sounds proper.

edited Aug 21 '12 at 10:43

RegDwigнt

97,231

answered Dec 16 '11 at 06:22

Ankit

545
2
6
11

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