1. I STARTED speaking English when I was 12, and most of the time, I’ve been learning English via lyrics from my favourite band, Metallica. I have no major problems with my vocabulary and grammar, but this one thing keeps me exasperated: I’d like to know when we should use the -ing form after the preposition “to”?

For instance, in the sentence, “I’m looking forward to meeting you, next week”, I know the rule is that verbs with the preposition “to” must be followed by gerunds. Can you elaborate on this? Please show some examples because I feel like a 12-year-old in need of an English refresher course.

2. I’ve come across two sentences in the PMR English Paper 2 which read:

“The essay must be written not less than 150 words ...” and “The essay must be written not more than 150 words ...”

I’m pretty sure that “not less than” and “not more than” should be replaced by “no fewer than” and “fewer than” respectively. We are learning English in school not Manglish. – shams

1. We usually use the “-ing” form of a verb or gerund (rather than its base form) after “to” in a sentence when we can also use a noun, noun phrase or pronoun in its place. For example, your sentence:

“I’m looking forward to meeting you next week.” can be rewritten as:

“I’m looking forward to our meeting next week.”

In the second sentence, the “-ing” form “meeting” has been replaced by the noun phrase “our meeting”, where “meeting” is a noun. The phrasal verb “look forward to” is often followed by noun phrases in sentences like:

“I’m looking forward to the picnic/the holidays/your party”.

Another common phrasal verb with the preposition “to” at the end is “be used to” (not to be confused with “used to”). Here is an example of its use with a gerund:

“I am used to working hard.” (meaning I have a lot of experience of working hard)

This can be rewritten as:

“I am used to hard work.” where “work” is a noun and “hard work” a noun phrase.

We can also use gerunds with the preposition “to” in stating a preference, e.g. :

“I prefer cooking to ironing clothes.” where “to” is used between two gerunds, “cooking” and “ironing”. This sort of sentence cannot be rephrased by changing the gerunds to noun phrases. The same structure can be used, however, where nouns, noun phrases or pronouns take the place of gerunds. Here are some examples:

“She prefers cocoa to tea.” (“to” between two nouns)

“They prefer country music to rock music.” (“to” between two noun phrases)

“Their grandfather prefers him to her.” (“to” between two pronouns)

2. Surely the questions state, “The essay must be written in not less than 150 words ...” and “The essay must be written in not more than 150 words ...”?

The first question is ungrammatical because “less” should not be used with countable nouns (“words” here). The second question is grammatically correct, because “more” can be used with both uncountable and countable nouns. So, only the first question needs to be reworded, as you suggest, i.e. “The essay must be written in no fewer than 150 words ...” OR, more simply, “The essay must be written in more than 150 words ...”

Time for ‘in’ or ‘at’

1. Here’s a sentence that starts: “In that time, anti-Malaysia ...”

Is it all right to use “At that time” and what is the difference?

2. “Practice” with a “c” is a noun. As a verb, it should be “practise”, with an “s”. But I have seen the sentence “Have you been practicing?” Is that correct? – T. Sathyaseelan

1. The phrase “in that time” refers to the length of time during which something happens or is done. It is correctly used in the article you refer to. Let me quote some sentences from the article to look closely at the meaning of the phrase in its context:

“The silly season had started again, to nobody’s amusement. That none of the alleged incidents occurred did not stop the fantasy storytellers from spinning their tale for days. In that time, anti-Malaysia street protests were rekindled. The Malay­sian Embassy in Jakarta was again targeted by an angry mob ...”

“In that time” here refers to “for days” at the end of the second sentence. The implication of the above sentences is that although the false stories were circulating for only a short period of time (“days”), they resulted immediately in serious anti-Malaysia protests in those few days.

Let me give you some Internet examples of how this phrase is used:

Your heart beats around 100,000 times every day and, in that time, pumps about 23,000 litres of blood around your body. (where “in that time” = in one day)

(openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/info.php?id=3928)

“It’s only three years since the shapely Renault Mégane first bounced onto the market, but in that time it has found a place in the hearts of many ...” (guardian.co.uk, March 22, 2006) (where “in that time” = in three years)

travel.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329440286-120284,00.html

“At that time” refers to a specified time, whether it is a moment, a day, a year, etc, in the past or future. Here are some examples of its use, from the Internet:

Somerville [College] was founded in 1879 to give women, at that time excluded from membership of the University, the chance to benefit from an Oxford education. (where “at that time”= in 1879)

(some.ox.ac.uk)

The world’s population is due to hit 7bn this October. Use the box below to find out the world’s population on your birth date, and how different countries were growing at that time. (where “at that time” = “on your birth date”)

(guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/oct/24/how-big-worlds-population-born)

If “at that time” is used instead of “in that time” in the sentence you refer to, the idea that both the circulation of rumours and the protests that result from it took only a few days would be lost. The connection between the two would also not be clear, because the protests could be seen as coincidental, something that just happened to occur “at that time”.

2. “Practicing” uses the US spelling, while British English uses “practising” (the US spelling for the noun is also “practice”).

Correct headings?

1. In a sports article in The Star, the subtitle reads: “Even cancer cannot hold Sidney back”. Pray tell, why “cancer” takes a plural verb “hold” here while one may say, “Cancer holds a dread for many people”?

In another article, the heading reads: “Grandpa leaves breakfast with family and attempts suicide”. This seems to suggest his relatives trundled along to watch. Perhaps it could have been better written as “Grandpa leaves family breakfast and attempts suicide”? – sm

1. “Even cancer cannot hold Sidney back”, is perfectly grammatical, because the verb in question has an auxiliary, i.e. “cannot”. Any verb with an auxiliary uses the base form of the main verb, in this case, “hold”. The whole verb is “cannot hold”. Elementary, my dear sm!

2. I have to agree with you here that this heading is ambiguous, and what you suggest would take away the ambiguity.

Dash or hyphen

Do we say “My address is 9 dash B Rodeo Drive” or “... 9 hyphen B ...”? – Charles

We usually use the word “dash” in addresses in this country to separate numbers. For example, I had relatives in Muar who lived in two houses along the same road. We would refer to one address as “13 dash 3” (13-3) and the other as 23 dash 1 (23-1). I suppose it is the same when the address contains a number and a letter, like 9-B (your address). But won’t it be neater to refer to your house number as just “Nine B”?

I have never heard the word “hyphen” used in saying a house number, although the short dash used in such numbers resembles a hyphen.

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