Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[susumu]

Hello
My name is Susumu. I am in high school and live in Japan. I have a grammar problem. Can you please help me? I wrote a sentence on my writing test at school and my teacher said it is no good.
I wrote "The first thing I do in the morning is make breakfast."
My teacher said it should be "The first thing I do in the morning is making breakfast."
Can you tell me which sentence is correct? I lost 10%!



Thank you very much

Susumu

[CP]

Your teacher made a mistake. Any native speaker in the U.S.A. would say, "The first thing I do in the morning is make breakfast," and almost none would say "making breakfast."

In yuor sentence, "make breakfast" is really "to make breakfast," but we often leave off the "to" where an infinitive could be used.

Now, understand that "to make breakfast" and "making breakfast" can sometimes be interchanged: "I like making breakfast / I like to make breakfast." But I think in this case, "making breakfast" is not the right answer.

Maybe other people will want to comment on this.
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Lorikeet]

I agree with CP. Sorry you lost 10%, but your English sounds good, if that is any consolation.