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I was reading a English grammar books. It says: when you use the structure: ... first (or last etc) n + to + v, there must be subject-predicate relationship between n and v.

Then it give an example:

Who was the first woman to climb Qomolangma?

Here is *woman climb ... *.

So it goes on to say that you can just say: Is this first time that you have stayed here?, you can't say ... the first time for you to stay here? because time is not subject of stay.

It confuses me, if it's wrong, what's the sentence meaning?

Is this the first time for you to stay here?

Does it equal to:

Is this the first time to stay here for you?

I know, sometimes in structure for n to v, n is subject of v, but is n always subject of v in the structure? Could it be adverbial of purpose? How should I understand this kind of sentence in general?

And here are some similar sentence:

It's time for everybody to go to bed. (Here everybody is subject of go)

This is a new system for distribution of objects to hosts in Meta’s private cloud. (Here seems I can see system as subject of hosts, and also see distribution as subject of hosts, which is correct?)

And last, do I need to understand it by the sentence meaning?

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  • @Kate Bunting Yes, but that also sounds slightly unusual to my ear. Better I'd have thought might be "This is the first time for you to be staying here". If one wanted to employ an infinitive one could say "This is your first opportunity to stay here".But more synonimically, I would simply say "This is the first time you have (or "will have") stayed here"
    – WS2
    Nov 20, 2022 at 16:44
  • I find the sentence in a grammar book, but as a wrong example. The book say: use the structure superlative (or like first etc) + n + to + v only when there is a subject-predicate relationship between nouns and verbs. Then it gives an example: Is this the first time that you have stayed here? considered correct, and you can't say ... the first time for you to stay here? because time is not subject of stay.
    – yixuan
    Nov 20, 2022 at 16:58
  • The book use this example to explain how to use to infinitive when it used after first, last etc: Who was the first woman to climb Qomolangma?. it says: There is subject-predicate relationship between woman and climb. So you can just say: Is this first time that you have stayed here? and you can't say: ... the first time for you to stay here?
    – yixuan
    Nov 20, 2022 at 17:05
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    You didn't say that the sentence was given as an example of one that doesn't work!
    – Kate Bunting
    Nov 20, 2022 at 17:24
  • @KateBunting Sorry, I edited my question.
    – yixuan
    Nov 20, 2022 at 17:34

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I don't quite understand what your grammar books is saying.

But what I do know is that different words or phrases take different structures for their complements, and there is not usually any easy way to predict which structures they take. It can even depend on the sense of the word.

So time in the sense of "occasion" takes a finite that clause (though the "that" can often be omitted) or a when clause:

That time [that] I saw you with that funny hat.

All those times when you were late.

and so

The first time [that] you have stayed here.

In this sense, time doesn't usually take a to infinitive_ clause.

But time in the sense of "moment or period of time" does take a to-infinitive clause:

It's time to go.

Have we got time [for us] to have a meal?

but not

  • We had time that we had a meal

So the first time that and the first woman to are different constructions.

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  • Then, if I say: This is the first time to stay here, is it correct in grammar?
    – yixuan
    Nov 20, 2022 at 18:18
  • It is not grammatical for me. As far as I know, it is not grammatical for native speakers of any variety of English. The iWeb corpus has only 892 instances of "the first time for VERB " (and many of those are different constructions, like "wash different colours separately the first time, to avoid colour running"). "The first time that" has 34477 instances.
    – Colin Fine
    Nov 20, 2022 at 19:42

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