hyunlee1030 wrote:
I was reading economist this week and found the sentence that is grammatically questionable.
"the American government's opposition complicates American airline's route to leaving bankruptcy protection, which it entered in 2011."
The question is;
why did they use "to leaving" instead of "to leave"?
Which one is correct, v someone to Verb or complicate someone to V ing ?
Thank you!
I like to see that you are reading the Economist - great practice material for the GMAT. Here "to leaving" isn't necessarily connected to "complicates". The government's opposition "complicates the route" (American Airline's route). OK, but which route? The route "to leaving bankruptcy protection". The article could have described the route as "the route to leave bankruptcy protection" and it would have been grammatically correct, but there would be a difference in meaning. As written, the route is described as "leaving bankruptcy protection" and it implies that "leaving" is a long, drawn-out process, making the leaving almost a destination in itself. If the route is described as "the route to leave bankruptcy protection", the process seems more like a decision than a long process. The difference in meaning is slight (and you could argue it's inconsequential), but if you are a journalist writing for the Economist, your job requires that you be very good as these small differences in meaning.
KW