Multiple times, I came across structures like '[verb] oneself to/into/through [something]' that mean "by doing [verb] achieve/pass etc. [something]". Is my expression 'fraud oneself to the office' grammatical and, not less importantly, idiomatical? If not, how can I fix it (but, if possible, still employing the described structure)? What I mean is, for example, by rigging an election, win the presidential post.
asked Mar 17, 2020 at 19:03
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FYI, you want to know if your phrase is idiomatic, not idiomatical– KevinCommented Mar 17, 2020 at 19:15
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@Kevin FYI, lexico.com/en/definition/idiomatical– Sergey ZolotarevCommented Mar 17, 2020 at 20:22
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books.google.com/ngrams/…– KevinCommented Mar 17, 2020 at 21:17
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1 Answer
NO
"Fraud oneself to the office" is neither grammatically correct nor idiomatic.
First, "fraud" is a noun, not a verb.
Second, "to the office" sounds like you are going to work. "Into office" is used when referring to obtaining a government position.
An idiomatic way to say this would be "get into office by fraud"
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How about 'cheat oneself into office'? And why can't I use the definite article if I mean one specific office (for example, the presidential office)? Commented Mar 17, 2020 at 20:25
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@SergeyZolotarev If you were to use "into the Presidential office" would be fine, but "the office" by itself is a phrase meaning your place of work, as in "I had to go into the office on Saturday because the servers crashed". And yes, "cheat yourself into office" or "cheat yourself into the Oval Office" would be fine. But I think "cheat your way" would be more common– KevinCommented Mar 17, 2020 at 21:24
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Can you, in grammatical terms, explain why 'the' would be out of place? Commented Mar 17, 2020 at 22:08
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@Sergey, using the here isn't ungrammatical, but it changes the meaning. What's ungrammatical is using fraud as if it were a verb. Commented Mar 18, 2020 at 2:43
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@SergeyZolotarev it's not ungrammatical, it just is already part of a set idiom. Unless you were using it in context and which specific office you were talking about had already been established. "You can't say that to me, I'm the one sitting in the Governor's Office" "Yeah, but you cheated your way into the office"– KevinCommented Mar 18, 2020 at 3:45