In this sentence:
She has too many students in the class to give them individual attention.
I wonder if the object 'them' is necessary to be inserted in the sentence as 'them' refers to 'many students'.
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1 Answer
The object "them" is needed there, to refer to the students. Compare the original sentence with:
She has too many students in the class to give the rain attention (also).
So if "them" is not used, something else can be. And if nothing is used:
She has too many students in the class to give individual attention.
then the sentence is complete: give attention ... to whom? To what?
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I think the original sentence should be: she has very many students in the class. she can't give them individual attention. Thus, if objects are the same, the other object is not needed in infinitive construction, what do you suggest?– alpsCommented Apr 25, 2019 at 11:32
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"to give" requires a receiver: "them" or somebody / something else. Without anything, the sentence is plain incomplete, and most likely ungrammatical. And "them" is used exactly for the purpose of avoiding the repetition of "students".– virolinoCommented Apr 25, 2019 at 11:49
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So the problem here is merely the verb "to give', isn't it? Hence, I might say: The roads are too icy for us to drive on (without them)?– alpsCommented Apr 25, 2019 at 12:08
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I would not say that "give" is a problem. A problem is when one wants to say something, but does not provide the required details in the proper way. In this sentence, "give" is properly used. You just need to tell "to whom" to give.– virolinoCommented Apr 25, 2019 at 12:10
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