Reduced infinitives

[ROBINDESBOIS]

I have a question concerning grammar:
Browsing a bunch of exercises the other day I run into one on Reduced infinitives and sth attracted my attention. I had to find to sentences in which the use of the reduced infinitive wasn't possible and I had to explain why. In mu opinion these two were the sentences. Can anybody check them out for me and tell me why?

I´m not surprised he was angry,
But he was much angrier ___________ (expect)

Was John surprised when he won?
Of course he was. He _____________(expect)

[Rusty]

I agree that a reduced infinitive would not be possible in either blank.
It's rather obvious that no infinitive, bare, full or reduced, can be used. The verb 'expect' must be conjugated in the past tense (and cannot stand alone).

[ROBINDESBOIS]

Does the same applies to Used to?

Is this correct?
You'll be able to enjoy yourself when the exam finishes.
That's what I´ll intend to.

[poli]

Originally Posted by ROBINDESBOIS

Is this correct?
You'll be able to enjoy yourself when the exam finishes.
That's what I´ll intend to.

No. That sounds off. What you can say is: You'll be able to enjoy yourself when the exam is completed, or when the exam is over. or when the exam is done. That's what I (not I'll) intend to do.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

No, but in the book , in the exercise it says:
You'll be able to enjoy yourself when the exams finish.
That's what ___________________(intend)

Originally Posted by Rusty

I agree that a reduced infinitive would not be possible in either blank.
It's rather obvious that no infinitive, bare, full or reduced, can be used. The verb 'expect' must be conjugated in the past tense (and cannot stand alone).

<Is it the verb expect or be?

[Rusty]

I have the notion that 'expect' is expected in the blank.
... much angrier than expected.
... He didn't expect it. (-or- He didn't expect to (win).)

[ROBINDESBOIS]

Well, according to what I ve observed, I think it has to do with the verb to be that cannot be left out.

[Rusty]

I don't see how 'to be' can be inserted in the sentences, when it looks like 'expect' needs to appear in the answers.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Maybe the book exercise needed replies like: "But he was much angrier than he was expected to" and "He wasn't expected to".

[Rusty]

The exercise was to find two sentences that could not possibly have a reduced infinitive in the blank. It looks like some form of 'expect' is supposed to appear in the blank found in the two proposals (else 'expect' wouldn't appear in parentheses).

I gave some possible responses. I believe it's possible to use a reduced infinitive in the second sentence that the OP chose (just saying 'to', instead of 'to win'), but it's not possible to use a reduced infinitive in the first sentence. Angelica's proposal can't be used. In this case, the sentence must end with the infinitive 'be'.

@Robin: Look elsewhere in the exercise for a sentence that cannot end with the particle 'to'.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I wonder what the designer of the exercise had in mind then. It seems no student would have guessed, unless there were other similar examples in the book to find a suitable answer.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

according to Swan, well-known grammarian, with verbs like be and have (meaning possession) cannot be dropped. So there you go.