A housewhife who feared losing her home sold a brooch which she had had for 50 pence for $ 13.225 at auction.
Question ¹ 1:
Can I replace the word in bold with the infinitive form, that’s to say, to lose
with no difference in meaning?
e.g.
A housewife who feared [i]to lose[/i] ...“feared to lose” doesn’t sound right to me. When you “fear to do something”, it usually implies that you have some control over whether you do it or not. For example, “I feared to ask him”. Losing something, however, is something that happens to one involuntarily.
However, there are enough plausible-looking Google hits for “feared to lose” in a relevant context to make me believe that some speakers may accept it.
A housewhife who feared losing her home sold a brooch which she had had for 50 pence for $ 13.225 at auction.
Question ¹ 2:
Can I use both “was afraid of losing” and “was afraid to lose” in liue of the words in bold in the sentence above with no difference in meaning?
e.g.
(1) A housewife who was afraid of losing …
(2) A housewife who was afraid to lose…
Hi Foreigner,
There are, as you know, certain verbs that are followed by either an infinitive or a gerund. In some case the meaning changes according to which one you choose. Verbs like ‘try’ and ‘remember’ are examples. For me the use of the infinitive tends to point to a specific activity and the gerund to a general one for verbs that can take either, In your example above both constructions are fine. The only difference for me is that the infinitive ‘to lose’ indicates a particular incident and the gerund suggests something more general.
Alan
Yes, I do agree with Alan.
The gerund is for general. (One can remember this because the ‘ge’ and ‘ge’ is mnemonic). The following examples may illustrate it further.
I am not afraid of playing with dogs. (General)
But, I am afraid to play with this dog. (Specific)
I beg to differ that certain verbs like,remember, ‘forgot’ and even ‘try’ if used has the same meaning in both infinitive and gerundial forms like these:
I tried to tell him.
I tried telling him.
No Ebe. These pairs have different meanings.
I remember to post your letter. > this indicates a future action.
I remember posting your letter. > This shows a past action.
I tried to tell him. > You made an effort to tell him.
I tried telling him. > You kept telling him.
“I remember to post your letter” sounds strange to me. For future action I would say “I’ll remember to post your letter”.
I do not fully agree with this distinction. “I tried to tell him” and “I tried telling him” can both have the sense “I told him but he didn’t listen”. “I tried to tell him” can additionally have the sense of “I made an effort to tell him but was unsuccessful”.