What's the diffence between "I want you to go to sleep" and "I want you going to sleep"

Question

Are the following two sentences correct?

I want you to go to sleep.

and

I want you going to sleep.

If they are both correct, what's the difference?

Answer 1

The first sentence is correct. I can imagine just about anyone saying this in the proper context:

I want you to go to sleep.

The second sentence is gramatically incorrect:

I want you going to sleep.

There are grammatical rules regarding which verbs can be followed by infinitives, gerunds, or both. The first (correct) sentence acts as a present tense statement of a desire at the time of the utterance. The desire has a future meaning in the sense that the fulfillment of the desire must occur in the future. However, in the second (incorrect) sentence, the verb "want" requires an infinitive ("to verb" such as to sleep, to play, etc), not a gerund ("verb-ing" such as sleeping, etc). The following are some good resources on this topic:

• https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/329/when-should-a-verb-be-followed-by-a-gerund-instead-of-an-infinitive
• https://www.google.com/search?q=want+requires+infinitive.
• A Rule-Based Method of Teaching Gerund vs. Infinitive Complements (Benjamin Taylor, Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute). This is also succinctly summarized in this YouTube Video: A Rule for When to Use an Infinitive by Benjamin Taylor.

Is the second sentence comprehensible in some sense? Yes. But so is the incorrect sentence, "I wanting you to going to sleeping." It's not standard English, and an English language learner should stay far away from using the second sentence form.

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^{I stand by the above prescriptive standard and advice. There's no grammatical source that supports any phrase in the form of "I want you gerund to infinitive." Furthermore, Google NGRAM and corpora at corpus.byu.edu show extremely limited usage of this even as a non-standard usage. However, I will likely follow up with this on linguistics.se and will update this answer with a cross-reference when I do so.}

Answer 2

I can only imagine three people who would say "I want you to go to sleep" -- an anaesthetist, a hypnotist, and a parent. The first two plan to act directly to bring about the state of affairs that they "want".

In the case of a parent speaking to a child, the words "I want you to" are simply padding placed around the real instruction "Go to sleep!".

The expression "I want you going to sleep [in a specified state]" might be used by a doctor or other therapist who is recommending a change in your past practice such as "before you are too tired", "absolutely exhausted", "completely satisfied" or "without taking a sedative".

If used alone (as you have quoted it), then I believe it is a regional spoken variant that would not be used in standard written English.

Answer 3

"I want you" can be followed by an -ing form, but it is unusual. To me it implies that the speaker is expecting to remain in control of the whole situation, not simply requesting an action. Fortiter's suggestion of a doctor is consistent with this: the doctor is looking after the whole situation of which your going to sleep is a part.

Similarly:

I want you to go to the bank.

is a normal request, but

I want you going to the bank.

means that the speaker is setting up a situation as part of which you are to go to the bank.

For normal circumstances, always prefer the I want you to form.

Answer 4

I disagree with the accepted answer [about the second sentence being grammatical incorrect]. An ing phrase behaves much like and can be replaced by a noun. Fir example: The situation was less than ideal. [Him being there at that hour] was less than ideal.

A pronoun or noun followed by ing is a very common construction and typically describes a situation. If you listen carefully, it's everywhere in common speech. People use this all the time without realizing it. . The second sentence you have is only incorrect if it's interpreted the same way as the first one, but they actually imply different things.

I want you to go to sleep -- this is an explicit wish or request that someone do something. You can imagine this being said to someone, expecting them to comply immediately.

I want you going to sleep. -- used in the first sense, it's bad grammar. Bit this describes a more general situation. You can imagine this being said in a context like the following: 'I'm having someone over tonight, so I don't want you and your pals raising hell in your room. I want the place cleaned up and you going to sleep early.' It's not the most natural wording here. This construct typically appears in the negative and, as mentioned, is used to describe a situation, where it can typically be replaced by a noun. Example: The last thing I want is her brother running his mouth to the guests about any of this.