Arnold King, while writing a blog in econlib, wrote:
The last thing he meant to do was call attention to the coercion behind the insurance function.
Should it not be:
The last thing he meant to do was to call attention to the coercion behind the insurance function.
Is the second to an ellipsis? Or is the second way of constructing the sentence incorrect?
In this instance, neither is incorrect.
I wouldn’t necessarily think of it as an ellipsis, since not all infinitives need a to particle in English. It’s just a bare infinitive.
I will make you do it better.
There is no to before do, nor can there be in this instance. As a subject at the start of sentence, you need the to:
To make it better is hard.
Or else you have to switch to the -ing form:
Making it better is hard.
But I suppose there is little enough harm in thinking it elliptical.
