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Is the following sentence correct?

I always fear making someone feel sad when I talk.

or I should say:

I always fear to make someone feel sad when I talk.

Doesn't the last one mean that I want to make someone feel sad, but I fear I can't do that correctly?

1 Answer 1

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The first is correct. The second is just broken. It doesn't even have your alternate "I want to make someone feel sad..." meaning.

** Addition **

I was trying to figure out why the second is broken. After all, something like this is OK (if a bit stilted):

I always cry to make someone feel sad when I talk

or

I always whine to make someone feel sad when I talk

or

I always love to make someone feel sad when I talk

or even

I always fart to make someone feel disgusted when I talk

So I'm not sure what it is about the verb "to fear" that makes it unsuitable in this context (but idiomatically at least it is unsuitable). I'd suggest it's because "to fear" is a transitive verb, but so is "to love". Shrug.

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