Teacher Discussion Forums

metal56 wrote:Anything wrong with this, IYo?

The weather continues cold.

And how about:

Finding suitable accomodation continued difficult for Sarah.

Do you prefer the infinitival?

Finding suitable accomodation continued to be difficult for Sarah.

Lorikeet wrote:

metal56 wrote:Anything wrong with this, IYo?

The weather continues cold.

Would never use it; may have heard it.

And how about:

Finding suitable accomodation continued difficult for Sarah.

Do you prefer the infinitival?

Finding suitable accomodation continued to be difficult for Sarah.

I like the infinitival (whatever that is) . The other one sounds "wrong."

metal56 wrote:
The first one is fairly common in BE weather reports and similar to:

Pollution of the air, ocean and soil continues unabated.
Supposed skill in judging football results, continues unchanged;...
Governance in the civil service sector of this country continues untainted.
She can not, so long as she continues absent, render him liable for the necessaries supplied to...
... He or she is sick on Sunday and continues sick until the following Sunday.

What's your take on those 5? Do you use them in your variant?

Lorikeet wrote:
How interesting. The first three sound okay; the last two don't (with "absent" and "sick") Maybe it's something about the type of adjective. Hrm.

Andrew Patterson wrote:I think this may have something to do with whether you are talking about a state or a process, Metal.

You can't drop "to be" in:

1) The weather continues to be cold. (state of being cold.)

I wish it were so easy. "Continues cold/sunny/foggy etc. is attested in the grammar, though most speakers prefer the infinitival.

Take a look at these.

A few examples.

The weather continues sunny and clear with cold nights. Some stormy weather may occur next week as the band of thunderstorms crossing Italy heads this way but it should still be good for the Festival on Friday next week.

http://www.symivisitor.com/adrianasdecember2002.htm

An AE instance?

Slept erratically last night. Woke up about 0500-0600 but crashed soon after. Revived around 1000. Today the weather continues sunny and very hot. I did not do much today. I went downtown to the Haga Park. I found it to be a very large park! Because of the heat I spent most of the afternoon in the shade. I took the first available return bus back home. On the return I found a 2nd empty box if needed for packing. I called Tim (got Angie) and left work that I was planning to return Thursday 1800. Then called Mom and chatted several minutes.

http://www.travel-library.com/europe/europe95+11.html

And from Illinois:

The big surprise was all the cloudy weather we had in May -- but the rains went north, south and west of us. It is very dry at the surface here, but there is subsoil moisture for now. If it continues sunny, then that moisture will quickly evaporate and plants will be showing stress soon after that, probably this week. Once plants are stressed, insects and diseases soon follow.

http://www.pure-prairie-organics.com/contact_us.html

I wish it were so easy. "Continues cold/sunny/foggy etc. is attested in the grammar, though most speakers prefer the infinitival.

Take a look at these.

A few examples.

The weather continues sunny and clear with cold nights. Some stormy weather may occur next week as the band of thunderstorms crossing Italy heads this way but it should still be good for the Festival on Friday next week.

"Andrew Patterson"

Is it attested without a prepositional phrase at the end, Metal?

Stephen Jones wrote:One to three seem OK to me. Four and five a bit iffy.

More a continuum than any definite break-off point.