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I have the following sentence and I need your help:

"Renewable energy sources can contribute to achieving the climate goals" Is this correct or do I have to write: "Renewable energy sources can contribute to achieve the climate goals"

I'd appreciate every comment.

PeterBe
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    Does this answer your question? "contribute to investigating" or "contribute to investigate". As @Colin Fine says there, 'contribute' does not catenate with a to-infinitive. The 'to = in order to' reading here would be unidiomatic and very awkward. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 15 '20 at 10:40
  • ... On reading some of the examples @LPH points to, I'd say that there are perhaps acceptable examples of this string not involving 'in order to', but this example certainly sounds unnatural. 'Man's social participation and teamwork contribute to achieve his goal.' where 'contribute' = 'chip in' and 'to' is not the (reason) 'in order to' but the (resultative) 'so as to' sounds better. But again, not a true catenation. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 15 '20 at 11:09

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Extract from https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/contribute

Don’t use a verb in the infinitive after contribute. Use the pattern contribute to doing something:

  • ✗ Technology has contributed to improve our lives.
  • ✓ Technology has contributed to improving our lives.
  • ✗ A positive aspect of education is that it contributes to confirm one’s identity.
  • ✓ A positive aspect of education is that it contributes to confirming one’s identity.

You can also use the pattern contribute to something: Technology has contributed to improvements in our lives.

Arunkgp
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    Although this question is an obvious duplicate, I'm going to upvote here because you've taken the effort to give an answer with a linked, attributed quote, which (while not necessarily telling the whole story, and to my mind not 'entirely correct') doesn't compel readers to go to the link to see exactly what it says. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 15 '20 at 11:01
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I read these differently:

  1. "Renewable energy sources can contribute to (= towards [someone's]) achieving the climate goals"

  2. "Renewable energy sources can contribute to (=in order to) achieve the climate goals"

The second sounds awkward.

Greybeard
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  • Yes, I think this is the issue. "contribute towards achieving" makes sense but "contribute towards achieve" would not. The second meaning would be more natural as "combine (in order) to achieve". – Especially Lime Apr 16 '20 at 08:02
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You find both forms, both are correct; however, the participial phrase is much more common (ngram). It might be said that it is found to be more expressive. Nevertheless, there is no difference in meaning, as far as I can tell.

LPH
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  • Can you show me an instance of Contribute to + infinitive. It sounds wrong intuitively. I've only ever seen it used with nouns and gerunds – Arunkgp Apr 15 '20 at 10:29
  • @Arunkgp You can get plenty of examples from the ngram I provide; it's only needed to click the underlined "contibute to achieve" below the graph: that will introduce on your screen the list of books with the examples. – LPH Apr 15 '20 at 10:38
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    The examples I've checked as you suggest are often of the 'to = in order to' kind, and this, being different from a catenation, surely needs pointing out on a site like ELU. Of the ones where true catenation is involved, the actual noun groups involved inform idiomaticity to quite a degree. I'd say OP's example sounds at least close to unacceptable. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 15 '20 at 10:50
  • Grammatically, all the four examples are correct. "contribute to improve, contribute to improving; contribute to confirm, contribute to confirming" How's it that contribute to improve, and contribute to confirm are wrong? The difference I see is that two of them denote infinitive verbs, and the other two to+ing form. – Ram Pillai Apr 15 '20 at 14:41
  • @RamPillai This answer (https://english.stackexchange.com/a/530924/349876) provides a clear prescription. Moreover, this can be said: if you check the entry for "contribute" in OALD and in it the constructions that are recognized as meaningful for this verb, you notice that the construction "[V to inf]" does not figure in the list; this is another prescriptive clue telling us that this construction has no well acknowledged meaning. – LPH Apr 15 '20 at 14:56
  • https://ludwig.guru/s/contributing+to+develop; endorses contribute to developing, contributing to develop, and also contribute to develop. I am not convinced that one cannot use contribute to achieve, but only contribute to achieving. Where a 'No' is prescribed to usages like contribute to achieve, contribute to develop etc will be appreciated. – Ram Pillai Apr 16 '20 at 04:32
  • @RamPillai In case you didn't check the source in the answer I quote I duplicate the link of that source here: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/contribute . That is where an explicit "no" is apposed to the usage (check at the bottom of the entry). If, however, you mean other sources than the one just referred to, I must say that I haven't found any. – LPH Apr 16 '20 at 15:54
  • @LPH, you have posted the same stuff that the OP started with. Anyway, let me continue my search while admiring your comments. – Ram Pillai Apr 17 '20 at 02:43