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  1. Nanxiang aside, the best Xiao long bao have a fine skin, allowing them ___ (lift) out of the steamer basket without allowing them tearing or spilling any of their contents. （ From a test） The given answer: to be lifted

Collins suggests the grammar pattern for "allow" should be "V n to-inf", rather than "V n ing" (allowing them tearing or spilling), so I'm considering it could be a mistake.

  1. Are there any other form possible for that blank？
  2. Does the bold part make sense？

Xiao long bao: a kind of food, also known as soup dumpling(s).

After reading the comments and answers, there arise another question. If the revised version is:
1a. ... allowing them to be lifted out of the steamer basket without tearing or spilling any of their contents.

What is the understood subject of "tearing or spilling..."？
Do soup dumplings tear (by themselves)？

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    The bold part doesn't make sense: it appears that allowing them has been accidentally repeated there.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 9:00
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    @KateBunting I find the original context(seriouseats.com/best-bites-in-china-chinese-food-drink) doesn't include "allowing them". Actually, that's part of the reason I asked. But I wasn't sure if it could be a deliberate revision by the text maker.
    – ForOU
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 9:05
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    What @KateBunting said. It would be possible to retain the noun but not the participle (...without them tearing or spilling...), but I doubt that was ever the intention. Either way, it looks to me like a meaningless transcription error - it doesn't tell us anything useful about syntactic affordances for to allow (apart from the obvious; if you randomly repeat words in an utterance, they probably won't work! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 10:07
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    1. "to be taken" is possible - but the hint says to use the verb "lift". 2. No it doesn't make sense. It's definitely an error. Delete "allowing them".
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 10:37
  • @FumbleFingers Without those two words, what is the understood subject then? More details are added to the main body of the question.
    – ForOU
    Commented Jun 13, 2023 at 0:43

1 Answer 1

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Are there any other form possible for that blank？

To be honest, i have no idea what "Nanxiang" or "Xiao long bao" is, so I will argue purely on grammatical grounds. Any sense the sentence might have will not necessarily be preserved:

"to be lifted" is the passive voice. Generally, where there is passive voice there also might be active voice, therefore "to lift" should (at least grammatically) be possible. Here is another example:

I am going ___. (bite)

can have two solutions:

I am going to bite. (active)
I am going to be bitten. (passive)

Does the bold part make sense?

Yes. "to allow" means not only "to give your consent" but also "to make possible".

I allow you to watch the movie.

Means I give my consent to you doing so.

Four-wheel-drives allow for faster acceleration.

The 4WDs were not asked for their consent, they just make it possible.

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    Sorry, I forgot to mention that Xiao long bao is a kind of food, also known as soup dumpling(s). People lift them with chopsticks when eating.
    – ForOU
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 9:12
  • Do you think "allow them lifted" would work？
    – ForOU
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 9:20
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    @ForOU: no, that won't work. As I said it is either passive or active: either the subject does something or something is done with/to it. Hence, "allow them to be lifted". "Allow them lifted" would mean make it possible (allow) that they are in a state where they are off the ground. But here, you refer to the action of lifting, not the state they might be in afterwards.
    – bakunin
    Commented Jun 12, 2023 at 9:31

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