Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rokricky]

A student asked me today to explain to him why this sentence was gramatically incorrect: I was busy to prepare the party.

Is it in fact gramatically incorrect? Or is it just awkward?

[iammac2002]

Do you ever use the word 'busy' without a verb ending with '-ing'? (Just like you have to use is/am/are/was/were/will be with -ing, you can't use 'busy' without '-ing'. Except if you say 'busy with...'.)

If you are busy doing something, it will be in the continuous tense. So unless you say 'busy trying to...', I don't think you can use the 'to'.

What was the question again?

[sugarkane59]

In that sentence it does not sound/look right to use an infinitive (to do something) after 'busy' when it's used in this way: always use the gerund (-ing)

e.g.

He was busy feeding the cat
She is busy showing him the painting
The are busy finding the remote control

Whereas these sentences use the infinitive:

He was too busy to feed the cat
She is too busy to show him the painting
etc...

Hope this helps

[lifeinkorea]

Another way to look at it is to identify an interruption using past continuous. You can reject "to prepare" solely on the basis of it conflicting with "was" which puts an event in the past, but the sentence as it is doesn't seem complete.

"You called me."
"I was preparing for the party."

"I was preparing for the party when you called me."

To me, this makes the initial sentence complete. It's true, you can separate past continuous with the interruption by simply asking a question like, "What were you doing yesterday?". However, if we are talking about only the past, then I don't see much point in using present continuous unless there is an interruption. You could have used simple past.

[iammac2002]

[seonsengnimble]