A pair of questions

The brushing helps the calf be "comfortable around keepers and less resistant to touch during future medical procedures," said WRS.

  1. Should it be “calf to be” instead?
  2. Should the comma be outside the inverted commas instead, in British English?

Thanks.

2 Likes

I think especially in modern American English the verb ‘help’ is often followed by an infinitive directly without the ‘to’: Learning English will help you make new friends. She went home early so she should help her mother clean the house.

Let’s see what @Alan, @Andrea, @Elida and @Anglophile think.
Regards,
Torsten

2 Likes

I agree with your explanation, @Torsten.

2 Likes

In my view, the use of infinitive marker ‘to’ with ‘help’ is optional. In this case we had better use ‘to’ to avoid any confusion.

As regards ‘Should the comma be outside the inverted commas instead, in British English?’ I’d say yes.

3 Likes

Many thanks, Torsten

1 Like

Many thanks, Anglophile!

1 Like

I’m just wondering why the quotations are only starting just before ‘comfortable’.

I would agree in this case that ‘to’ would make better sense. I would also keep the comma inside the quotation marks.

I would rewrite this as:

"The brushing helps the calf to be comfortable around keepers and less resistant to touch during future medical procedures," said WRS.

3 Likes

‘Help the calf be comfortable’ - there is a problem here because ‘be’ isn’t really strong enough to stand without the preposition ‘to’ that helps give this verb some kind of direction.

3 Likes

Good reasoning which is new to me, Alan. Thank you. But what about become?

2 Likes