0

He threatens the kid to finish the work.

Who is performing the action "finish the work",

He or the kid.

2
  • 2
    Sorry but the sentence is not correct English. Please can you tell us its source? Did you invent it yourself or did you read it somewhere? Commented Mar 23, 2019 at 9:21
  • “Pressured” might be the intended word here; “threatened” doesn’t work, as @BillJ explains.
    – Mixolydian
    Commented Mar 23, 2019 at 13:52

1 Answer 1

1

He threatens the kid [to finish the work.]

This sentence is ungrammatical because the catenative verb "threaten" can't take an infinitival clause as complement when there is an intervening noun phrase (here, "the kid") between the two verbs.

"Threaten" can occur freely, though, with to-infinitival complements in simple catenative constructions, i.e. the kind without an intervening noun phrase:

He threatened [to leave].

She threatened [to tell her father].

1
  • If his work is “threatening the kid” this sentence might be grammatical... probably not the intended meaning, though.
    – Mixolydian
    Commented Mar 23, 2019 at 13:47

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .