I have no intention {to / of} …

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

I have no intention of …
vs.
I have no intention to

Most cases I’ve found for the patterns are with gerund.

Why and when do you use gerund here?
(In my understanding in both cases we speak about some specific future action (not about something ‘general’.) For example:

I have no intention (to remove…/ of removing…) that icons from the Desktop.
[size=167]?[/size]

(Is there any rule? © tung quoc )
Hi Quoc :slight_smile:

a) I don’t have any (further) intention to discuss that.
b) I have no further intention to discuss that.
c) I haven’t any intention to discuss that.
d) Let’s not discuss this anymore. :slight_smile:

Which of the phrases sounds ‘softer’?
Most rough? :slight_smile:
(if there is any difference in tone at all)

Tamara
P.S. Sorry for such a looong question :slight_smile:

2

Hi Tamara :lol:

To make your long story short:

I’d generally use intention of and therefore also the gerund:
I have no intention of answering any more questions about rules. :lol:

[size=84](As to using “intention to” — My first reaction is “NO, it sounds wrong!” But let me roll it around in my head a bit. Meanwhile, maybe someone else will come up with more input.)[/size]

I’d use the to-infinitive with the verb (intend):
I don’t intend to answer any more questions about rules.

© Amy 8)

3

Hi Amy,
[size=84](Taking this lucky opportunity to ask a stupid question - just out of curiosity - and have a sound answer :slight_smile: )[/size]

Do you often/ever use the Continuous form ‘I am intending’ ?

P.S.
Google:
67,600,000 for intention to
Quite many…

P.P.S.
But! (pouring some balm (in)to teacher’s open wounds :slight_smile: )

Just
11,100 for intenting
Quite a few! :slight_smile: :lol:

(To be honest, I thought that to inten[color=red]t-suggestion and coresspondent errors are much more common for foreigners :))

4

Hi Tamara

I didn’t completely understand what you were intending to say to me in your last post. :wink:

So, let me clarify something from my first post:

You asked very specifically about “no intention” (or “intention” similarly negated). So, that is specifically what I reacted to. I’ve now googled the following:

“no intention of” - 9,100,000
“no intention to” - 1,850,000
“any intention of” - 772,000
“any intention to” - 595,000

As I said, even though my first reaction was to reject the “no intention to” usage, I wanted to roll it around in my head a bit longer. I’ve now done a bit of rolling :wink: and have the following thoughts:

It may simply be the case that “no intention of” is more emphatic and/or reacts to something that is already happening or that has already happened whereas “no intention to” may be used to state an intention not to do something at all in a neutral, factual and non-reactive way.

As to your sentences, this is what I’d probably say:

a) I don’t have any intention of discussing that further.
b) I have no intention of discussing that (any) further.
c) I don’t intend to discuss that. (i.e., There hasn’t been and won’t be any discussion at all)
c) I don’t intend to discuss that any further. (There has already been some discussion and the speaker may be frustrated or annoyed.)
d) Let’s not discuss this anymore.
d) Let’s stop discussing this.

Because you brought it up, I’ve now also googled “intenting”. The results seem to be primarily from non-native speakers. But I didn’t say anything about “intenting” or “intent”. I mentioned using the verb intend in my first post. So, I don’t quite understand your intent in mentioning “intenting”. :wink:

Ms Google gave me the following results for the verb intend + to:
“intend to” - 75,000,000 results
“intends to” - 49,900,000 results
“intending to” - 14,100,000 results
“intended to” - 240,000,000 results :shock:

I think that should give you an idea why I mentioned using the verb + to. :wink:

Amy

PS

The Google results from my house:
73,600,000 results for intention to (i.e., without any quotation marks)
45,600,000 results for “intention to” (i.e., with quotation marks)

I just love Madame Google… 8)

5

Hi Amy,

Thank you. :slight_smile:

:wink:

I really like your answer. :slight_smile:

The secret intention :slight_smile: of my last post was just to (try to) become a bit more fluent with that… word family. :slight_smile:

Ideally - to comprehend the vague (to me) difference between intent and intention

and between ‘to intend’ and the structure/pattern ‘be intent (on)’ :wink:

Amy, I know that intenting is wrong. I only wondered that it’s wrong in such a minor… scale :slight_smile:

P.S.

Sorry. I used google.co.uk
directly, with no quotation :slight_smile:

Many thanks, Amy, indeed.
I’m now completely satisfied with your explanation! (… and have no intention of making you feel tired with all those my unintentional meanings :slight_smile: )

:slight_smile: