Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jays]

Is the following sentence grammatically correct? I heard that an infinitive must follow the verb "seek." Can a gerund follow the verb "seek" sometimes?
-------- the following ------------------------------
The Weekender seeks advertising sales people.

[EnglishRaven]

You only need an infinitive after seek if it is to be connected to an action (verb).

In this case, 'advertising' is used in a phrase to describe a specific occupation or title - "advertising sales people". This noun phrase is the object of "seek", not an additional action.

Similarly, you could say that someone was seeking advertising services, or advertising experience, that sort of thing.

If the subject was looking to do the actual action - advertise - then yes, we would need the infinitive "to". In that sort of example, "The Weekender seeks to advertise sales people", the Weekender wants to advertise or promote sales people. In your original example, the Weekender wasnts sales people who specialize in advertising (as in, to advertise the newspaper).

Hope that helps,

- Jason
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