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I have seen some similar questions on here, mainly this and this, but I'm still not completely convinced.

Which of these is correct?:

  • "The thing that I want to do is study English"
  • "The thing that I want to do is to study English"
  • "The thing that I want to do is studying English"

I personally think that only the first one is correct despite what people have been saying in the other threads that I have linked as, unlike in the examples given in those questions, something still feels off about using [to] here.

Ceness
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    The third is bad grammar. The first two are valid grammar, and the choice would be based on context and "tone". – Hot Licks Sep 22 '22 at 02:50
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    As @HotLicks says the third one is definitely wrong but there's nothing wrong with either of the others. The repeated 'to' in the second one makes it a bit clumsy, particularly combined with the phrase "The thing that" rather than "What" but that is a style choice rather than a grammatical error. – BoldBen Sep 22 '22 at 03:02
  • Thank you very much. – Ceness Sep 22 '22 at 06:44
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    Right. You need an infinitive, but you can use to or not, because the structure is a cleft. It comes from I want to study English, but the cleft has added lots of dummies that don't change the meaning but do change the structure. After want, you need to; but after the clefting, study doesn't come after want any more; it's after is, and there you have a choice, to use to or not (to). – John Lawler Sep 22 '22 at 14:56
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    BTW, none of these is how I think most would say it. More normal would be "I want to study English" or "What I want to do is study English" – Barmar Sep 22 '22 at 22:37
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    This does answer your question. Is this sentence correct? "What I want to do is read this book." Professor Lawler studied under McCawley, himself a student of Chomsky. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 19 '24 at 23:26

1 Answers1

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Go with "The thing that I want to do is to study English."

Or rephrase as

  • "Studying English is the thing I want to do."

Or as

  • "Studying English is what I want to do."
banuyayi
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  • Why the extra reduplicated to particle for the infinitive clause? A simple What I want to do is study English sounds more natural and fluent, as mentioned in comment by Barmar. – tchrist Sep 27 '22 at 14:37
  • It's courtesy my old English teacher. Q. What do you want to do? A. I want to study. [ I am going to do something. What am I going to do? I am going to read.] If it is possible to use a verb with or without "to" in front of the verb, my teacher advised me and other students to use "to" in front of the verb. – banuyayi Sep 27 '22 at 15:18
  • Then either your teacher gave you poor advice or that advice does not apply to this situation. Although adding to in something like What I want to do is (to) pass my exam or Could you please help me (to) carry this in? is indeed optional, doing so sounds almost stilted and unnatural. Why? Because people don't actually talk like the android Data from Star Trek. :) – tchrist Sep 27 '22 at 15:37