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Mostly, I have seen that to be is followed by adjective/verb , whereas In Today's new paper, it (to be) is followed by article as well as noun, so how is this possible?

Andhra Pradesh without the revenue flow from Hyderabad (which accounted for 22 per cent of the total revenue of the undivided State) is in dire financial straits as the special status promised by the previous UPA government has proved to be elusive. As an ally of the BJP at the Centre, the Telugu Desam Party that rules Andhra Pradesh is hoping for a special financial grant. But that too appears to be a distant dream today as too many States are in the queue seeking such packages

Thanks,

Charmi

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  • I'm not sure I quite understand what it is that you don't understand. To be + adjective/verb could be "He is happy". *To be + article + noun" could be "He is a (happy) man". Or are you referring strictly to the infinitive, and if so, why should that be any different?
    – JMB
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 8:08
  • Yes JMB, I am referring strictly to the infinitive
    – Charmi Sapariya
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 8:36

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You're confused as how to separate the sentence in different parts. It's actually modifying verb + infinite | article+noun, not modifying verb | infinite+article+noun; i.e., appears to be | a distant dream, not appears | to be a distant dream.

In this sentence, to be is used as a linking verb. As mentioned in the comments, it is used exactly the same as 'He is a happy man'.

So, the sentence could have read 'But that too is a distant dream today ...'. However, then the sentence implies that it certainly is a distant dream, although the writer wants to say that it looks like it is a distant dream.

So, compare the sentence to 'He walks down the street' and 'He appears to walk down the street. In the same way, the sentence 'But that too is a distant dream today' is modified to 'But that too appears to be a distant dream today'.

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  • Thank you Sanchises, but in above paragraph, in the sentence (the special status promised by the previous UPA government has proved to be elusive) "to be" used as infinitive verb right… or my understanding is incorrect.
    – Charmi Sapariya
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 10:27
  • Yes, but again it is a modification of 'is' to 'proved to be'. So, the infinite + article + noun is not the grammatical construct of interest, but modifying verb + infinite is! For example, 'The plane took off from the airport', one could ask a question like 'What kind of construct is 'off from'? whereas the construct in question is 'to take off' and 'from + noun'. So, to conclude, the question isolates part of the sentence that is not a separate construct at all!
    – Sanchises
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 10:34
  • @CharmiSapariya To put it another way: in each of these the first verb in the chain--prove, appear, seem--requires that a clausal complement be headed by a marked infinitive.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 11:12

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