accmanu  +  20365 Sun, 25 Jan 04 10:53 PM I just wanted to know if the following para is grammatically wrong: Our team are dedicated to providing you with the best possible solutions. They always enjoy hearing your stories so please keep sending them your feedback. What I feel is that it should be: Our team is dedicated in providing you with the best possible solutions. We always enjoy hearing your stories so please keep sending us .... Is there any circumstances that we can use are instead of is with Our team?? Does marketing strategies permit this or so on??? Another can any other tense except present be used with to preposition? Thanks accmanu Joined on Sun, Jan 25 2004 New Member 04 Prepositions, Tenses

	John C.  +  20367 Mon, 26 Jan 04 01:18 AM The plural is fine. For a group of individuals you can either use the singular if you want to emphasise the group (single entity), or the plural if you want to refer to all of the people (multiple entities) that make up the group. Cheers John. John C. Joined on Thu, Jun 5 2003 The Peoples Democratic Republic of Spam Full Member 178 Plurals

	accmanu  +  20368 Mon, 26 Jan 04 01:33 AM Thanks for your reply. If you could also answer my second question of using 'to providing'. Can we use 'providing' with 'to' preposition? Can 'to' be used with 'ing' or past tenses? Thanks accmanu Prepositions, Tenses, Past Tenses

	accmanu  +  20565 Tue, 27 Jan 04 08:43 PM Please answer my question, if anyone can help me? Can we use 'providing' with 'to' preposition like 'to providing'? Can 'to' be used with 'ing' or past tenses? Thanks accmanu Prepositions, Tenses, Past Tenses

	buggah  +  20580 Tue, 27 Jan 04 11:01 PM There's no problem about these constructions. It also works with commited and devoted. Someone can be dedicated to something or to do something. Ex.: - I'm dedicated to studying the English language. - I'm dedicated to study the English language. - I'm dedicated to the study of the English language. buggah Joined on Sat, Jan 24 2004 Brazil Full Member 106 "Do not try to bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth." Constructions

	whl626  +  20589 Wed, 28 Jan 04 03:04 AM Our team " is " refers to the team as a whole. Our team " are " refers to the members in the team. Both are acceptable. To treat ' to ' as a preposition, the verb followed should be in ' gerund '. As what other member mentioned earlier. I am dedicated ' to ' teaching ..... To treat ' to ' + ' infinitive ' in a sentence, we don't use .. ing. eg. I am ready to go ...... Regarding what preposition to use after ' dedicated ', so far no rules governing the choice of it. Normally, we use ' to ' only, that's why preposition is arguable at times due to its flexibility and perspective. whl626 Joined on Sun, Aug 24 2003 Regular Member 882 Learn English every day Verbs, Prepositions, Gerunds

	accmanu  +  20600 Wed, 28 Jan 04 04:19 AM Thanks for your inputs.. Don't you think that if I have to write 'Our team are dedicated......to providing', it will be more appropriate if we write it as 'Our team members are dedicated ....... in providing' or 'Our team is dedicated..... in providing'. Do you think, the second and third options are better to be used rather than the first option? The first time I read this sentence(the first one), I found its language very weird. I am no english grammer expert but somehow I felt that it was not correct. Thanks again for further feedback.. accmanu

	suzi  +  20607 Wed, 28 Jan 04 08:25 AM in the traditional grammar "team" always takes a singular verb - but in current useage more and more people are writing with the "sense" that the team is more than one person, and adopting the plural verb ending, suzi Joined on Wed, Jan 7 2004 Full Member 465 Grammar, Verbs, Singular Verbs, Plurals

	whl626  +  20639 Wed, 28 Jan 04 12:00 PM Your confusion is whether to use ' gerund ' or ' to + infinitive '. In fact, the most distinguishable of the two is when ' to ' is used, it gives a sense of ' going to happen '. You are dedicated to ' provide ' or ' providing ' .... ( ' to provide ' means you might be doing it soon ) whereas ( ' to providing ' means you say it in the general sense without any hurry to do ) It is always advisable to use ' The team " members " to single out the individuals in the team rather than the team as a whole when what you intend to say is the people in there ' I repeat ' dedicated ' is always followed by ' to ' . We'd better stick to it unless other option is acceptable worldwide. whl626 Gerunds