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I am being taught by a teacher who is a non native speaker. Her boyfriend comes from an English-speaking country. The problem is that she asked him whether the following sentences are correct:

  1. I am excited to play against Federer tomorrow/next week.

  2. I am excited I'll play against Federer tomorrow/next week.

  3. I am excited I am going to play against Federer tomorrow/next week.

  4. I am excited I'll be playing against Federer tomorrow/next week.

Options 3 and 4 are correct in his opinion. However numbers 1 and 2 aren't. Sentence number two is "weird". What is it that is weird on the sentence number two? Would you use it? If not, why?

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    All four sentences are grammatical and understandable. They both refer to the future: to play, will play. Why do you think #1 and #2 are incorrect?
    – Peter
    Jan 24, 2016 at 14:45
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    I don't find any of OP's alternatives particularly idiomatic. The first one can easily be "fixed" by changing to I am excited to be playing against Federer, but all the others essentially consist of two sentences each (the first one ending on excited). Syntactically I don't find to be excited [that] (some statement) acceptable.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 24, 2016 at 15:18
  • In sentences 1 & 2, the bold phrase feels like it is missing a few words.
    – Ray Fang
    Jan 27, 2016 at 3:35

1 Answer 1

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"I am excited to play."

is a complete sentence and works just fine how it is written in your example.

However,

"I am excited I'll play."

"I am excited I am going to play."

"I am excited I'll be playing."

These are not necessarily complete sentences because they each contain two unconnected thoughts.

Consider:

"I am excited, I'll play.

"I am excited because I am going to play."

"I am excited that I'll be playing."

The last two options would work in your example, whereas the example with the comma suggests that you are deciding to play because you are excited. That said I still prefer your very first option as it is the clearest and uses the fewest words.

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