rajasaran wrote:
bigoyal wrote:
aim to: to intend to do something. e.g.
I didn't aim to hurt your feelingsaim for: to strive toward a particular goal;
e.g One should aim for 800 in GMAT aim at: to point or direct something at someone or something.
Hi Bigoyal ,
Thanks for the info..
My doubt is note related to this question. (A general one)
What is the difference among below mentioned 3 statements.
1) I aim for getting 800 in GMAT
2) I aim to get 800 in GMAT
3) I aim at getting 800 in GMAT
Thanks ,
Raja
I collated these brilliant notes from two of Stacey's posts on usage of idioms around "aim".
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Make sure you post the ENTIRE sentence / phrase when talking about an idiom. The incorrect example given in the book is: "We adopted new procedures WITH THE AIM TO REDUCE theft."
That's not a correct usage - that entire phrase. That doesn't mean that "aim to" by itself is always wrong.
To fix the above sentence, we could say something like: "We adopted new procedures AIMED AT REDUCING theft" meaning: the new procedures are aimed at <achieving some goal>
or "We adopted new procedures WITH THE AIM OF REDUCING theft." Full idiom here is "with the aim of"
We could also say: She aims to please. Her aim to please makes it easy for people to walk all over her.
"aim to" is perfectly fine there.
Some stadiums have adopted rules that aim <to do something else>. If you want to put a verb action after aim, you need to use "to <verb>." Idiom: X that aim to Y ("rules that aim to identify").
good: aimed at <-ing word>
good: with the aim of <-ing word>
suspect: the aim of which (is/was) <to verb>
bad: with the aim <to verb>
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This should clarify everything. Coming to your doubts:
1) I aim for getting 800 in GMAT -- Looks incorrect to me. So I will reject it only if I have no other basis to remove this.
2) I aim to get 800 in GMAT -- Correct
3) I aim at getting 800 in GMAT -- Correct
BTW, though "aim to" is correct here, idiom "with the aim to" has been wrong in two of below questions :
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-baldrick- ... 86349.htmlhttps://gmatclub.com/forum/to-gain-a-com ... 64242.htmlSo the idiomatic learning here is :
1) "Aim to" is correct but "with the aim to" is incorrect
2) "with the aim of" is preferred, if it all "with" comes with "aim"
3) "Aim at" is correct ( in a way because it draws parallel to two other exactly similar idioms in meaning and usage "targeted at", "focused at")
"so as to..." is certainly a legitimate construction, but you have to know how to use it.
since it isn't followed by a whole clause -- it's just followed by a verb in infinitive form -- the subject of that infinitive verb must be the same as the subject of the preceding part. for instance, if i say i bought a bunch of blankets so as to avoid paying too much for heating bills, then that makes sense, because i (the preceding subject) am the one who is going to avoid paying too much for heat.