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He asked me to use my bathroom.

In this sentence I thought someone want to use my bathroom and ask for permission. I mean the act will be committed by “he”.

He asked me to take his sister to school.

But in this sentence someone’s sister need to go school and he want me to take her to school. So the act will be committed by “me”.

In both sentence what I confused me is that both sentences have the same structure but have the different meaning. Or in first sentence is the structure I used wrong? If it is wrong what is the alternative for it?

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    "Bob asked to do something" means "Bob asked [[for Bob] to do something]. Compare with "Bob asked Bill to do something", which means "Bob asked Bill [[for Bill] to do something]".
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Commented Oct 2, 2021 at 1:51

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He asked me to use my bathroom.

That is poor wording, because as you said, it sounds like he's asking you to do it yourself. In context, we would probably know what you meant, but we wouldn't say it that way. We would say either

He asked to use my bathroom

(the fact that he's asking you is implicit) or

He asked if he could use my bathroom.

(You can include "me" before "if" here if you want it to be clear that he's asking you rather than someone else in the house.)

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The first sentence would certainly be understood in context, but it could be improved by leaving out "me." The verb "ask" can be intransitive: "I asked to use the bathroom." The first sentence, while easily understood, has perhaps confused this use with the transitive use. A slightly different example, especially out of context, could be misunderstood: "I asked Billy to use the bathroom." Here the speaker could actually be asking Billy for Billy to use the bathroom.

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  • Got it. Would it be correct if I say; he asked of me to use my bathroom.
    – Foreign student
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 21:03
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    Grammatically correct but "asked of me" is a rather antiquated construction. One valid version would be "He asked me if he could use my bathroom."
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Sep 30, 2021 at 21:06

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