2

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/battle-for-ukraine/what-comes-next-in-ukraine/

He seems to be performing quite well. Poroshenko’s role is to reassure the nationalists that there will be no sell out, while on the other hand making a deal with Russia, which at least to a certain extent will be a sell out. It’s a difficult political balance to keep. Poroshenko also has to be a bullish negotiator with Moscow and know that Moscow does not treat weak positions with respect.

How would the meaning of the sentence change if I left out the to particle like this:

Poroshenko’s role is reassure the nationalists that there will be no sell out, while on the other hand making a deal with Russia, which at least to a certain extent will be a sell out.

Would the meaning still be the same or is there some kind of little nuance that makes a big difference to the sentence if you change the infinitive form to its bare form without the to particle?

And now please take a look at these two sentences:

1: The last thing the 'if' statement does is break the loop when a word is found". How can you explain this usage?

2: The location numbers on the map's eastern edge are 2, 5, and 8. If you divide any of those numbers by 3, you'll get a remainder of 2. So all you need to do is use the modulus operator to check for this, and you can tell whether or not the player is on the very eastern edge of the map.

Are they correct? How do all these three sentences stack up against each other?

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2 Answers 2

1

Poroshenko’s role is reassure the nationalists that there will be...

Does not sound okay to me. Maybe, using reassuring works there.

to reassure is a verbal use of the word.

reassure - to say or do something that makes somebody less frightened or worried

Think about a simpler sentence and we understand this...

My role is to play cricket over My role is play cricket!

5

To is used in the infinitive form to express purpose. The sentence does not make sense if you remove it. You would need to use the gerund reassuring instead.

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  • Okay, I got it. Now, please take a look at this sentence: "The last thing the 'if' statement does is break the loop when a word is found". How can you explain this usage? Jul 4, 2014 at 19:55
  • And here's another example: The location numbers on the map’s eastern edge are 2, 5, and 8. If you divide any of those numbers by 3, you’ll get a remainder of 2. So all you need to do is use the modulus operator to check for this, and you can tell whether or not the player is on the very eastern edge of the map. Jul 4, 2014 at 22:06

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