Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fromountosea]

Derek found an ideal environment ( ).

(a) in which to learn foreign languages
(b) in which foreign languages to be learnt

Which of the two is correct to put in the parentesis?
The answer is (a). I understand (a) is correct. But I cannot find out why (b) is incorrect.
Please tell me why.

Thanks in advance

[redset]

(b) in which foreign languages to be learnt

The bold part is a passive phrase, but it's incomplete. There are a few ways to correct it:

in which foreign languages are/were to be learnt
in which there are/were foreign languages to be learnt

Or we can drop the to and use a modal auxialiary verb instead:

in which foreign languages could/would/must/will be learnt

These all make the passive phrase grammatically correct, but they all have slightly different meanings compared to (a), which is an active structure (Derek intended to learn foreign languages, and found an ideal environment in which to do this).

[fromountosea]

Thank you, redset. for your explanation. My understanding is that the part after "in which" should be a sentence or to infinitive. In case of (b), "foreign languages to be learnt" is not a sentence but a noun phrase. That's why it is incomplete. Am I right?