Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Learner33]

Hello,
How can we report a sentence that has more than one order? do we need the (to) for the second verb for example:
1.Teacher: "Stop laughing and start doing your job"
2.Teacher: "Stop laughing and don't talk to your classmate"

Is my answer correct:
1.The teacher ordered me to stop laughing and (to) start doing my home work.
2.The teacher ordered me to stop laughing and not (to) talk to my classmate.

[pugachevV]

I think to be strictly correct you need to use the second to. You will hear it ommitted many times by native English speakers, and it may well be that it is now accepted practice to leave it out. To be on the safe side when doing exams I would put it in.

[welkins2139]

In sentecne #1, it is all right to leave out " to " because " and " is a coordinating conjuction. We can leave out the word or phrase after the conjuction. In this case, you can be omit the word " to " Of course, there is nothing wrong if you keep the word " the "

In sentence #2, it seems to me that you should keep the word " to " because there is a word " not " before the verb " talk " It sounds more natural for me.