ellenkushner: (Default)
[personal profile] ellenkushner
What is with this forbade from? Isn't it forbade to?

I hear/see it all the time now - on NPR, in a recent (excellent) story in the NYTimes, even on Neil Gaiman's blog! It's (mis?)used most often in the past tense: "They forbade them from landing on the beach." Isn't it "They they forbade them to land..."? Move it to the imperative and it becomes clearer: surely it's "I forbid you to open that door!" - not "I forbid you from opening that door!"

Is this a language elision, a regionalism, or what?

Date: 2008-04-10 03:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] peregrinejohn.livejournal.com
Tense mixup, I think. "He forbid me to lick the stamp" vs. "I was forbidden from licking the stamp." Hm. Or is that a person issue?

Crud. I should ask my sis-in-law, the Grammar Hammer.

Date: 2008-04-10 03:53 pm (UTC)
feuervogel: photo of the statue of Victory and her chariot on the Brandenburg Gate (Default)
From: [personal profile] feuervogel
What you are describing is neither tense (past/present/future) nor voice (passive/active), but a matter of the object of the verb: "to lick" is an infinitive phrase, while "from licking" is a prepositional phrase with a gerund in it.

Date: 2008-04-10 05:34 pm (UTC)
feuervogel: photo of the statue of Victory and her chariot on the Brandenburg Gate (up to no good)
From: [personal profile] feuervogel
Not exactly?

(But, man, I haven't had a chance to use grammar words since high school.)

Date: 2008-04-10 04:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] peregrinejohn.livejournal.com
Ah, there it is! I knew there was some reasonable explanation.

Thanks!

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