Good morning my friends, could you please clarify the following point for me. I have received an email from a British English language trainer who is seeking a position in our company. She confirms the receipt of a message. This is the text:
Dear …,
thank you for your prompt reply. My telephone number is … I look forward to hear from you. Yours faithfully First Name Surname
Now, my question is why does she write look forward to hear from you and not look forward to hearing from you? Is the use of the infinitive after look forward to acceptable nowadays?
This construction: look forward to doing is the accepted form and the infinitive to hear is a well known error made by writers to whom English is a foreign/second language.
Hello Alan and Jamie, thanks a lot for your answers. Mind you, this mistake was made by a person who was seeking a position as an English language teacher/trainer in our company. I have often noticed that many of the free lance English trainers here in Paris frequently make spelling or grammar mistakes and I attribute this to the fact that most of those people have not studied to become English teachers. What do you think about this?
Fabrice
All I can say is that the mistake over ‘look forward …’ would indicate that the writer is not a native speaker/writer of English. It’s not like a spelling mistake or careless writing or in fact a sign of not being trained. I would suggest, if I might, that you should find a reason for seeing some further evidence of this person’s written English.
As they say, Spencer, silence gives consent. I’d still like to point out that you ‘look forward to something’ (i.e. a noun) so you’re right, you can say ‘I look forward to your answer’. In business correspondence, though, the usual phrase is ‘I look forward to hearing from you’ – the gerund ‘hearing’ being used like a noun.
The expression “look forward to” is followed by a gerund (noun) or direct object
e.g.
She is looking forward to retiring. (gerund)
I am looking forward to spending Easter in his house. (gerund)
She is looking forward to my visit (noun).
Since they know you are not a native speaker, you are probably not expected to write flawlessly. Moreover, receiving a written apology for such a trivial matter would make a strange impression on me if I were about to hire you. Just forget about it.
I - subject
look - verb in simple present
forward - adverb for the verb look
to - preposition
hear from - IDIOM
you - personal pronoun acting as the object
On a different note, saying “looking forward to hear from you” is NOT an indication of being a non-native speaker of English…
It seems like you divide the people around the world in two categories… either you’re a grammarian and be considered educated… or have grammar glitches and be considered uneducated… wow… simply, wow.
For you, a person (a native English speaker, in that sense) who says “I’m looking forward to hear from you” eventually falls under the uneducated/badly educated/has little education category… tsk tsk tsk… now, that says a lot on how you comprehend things… shallowly…
I know a lot of educated and well-mannered native speakers who ARE NOT GRAMMARIANS…
The way you think is like a mathematician who has the mentality that people who aren’t very good in Math are uneducated…
Being able to converse decently doesn’t mean you have to be a grammarian… or a nerd.
It’s not so much about being a ‘grammarian’ (whatever that might be) or not. It’s more about usage. So the question is really how often do you hear people say ‘I look forward to hear from you’? Or do you use that phrase yourself? If so, what do you think of people who say or write ‘I look forward to hearing from you’?[YSaerTTEW443543]