I'm Chinese. A sentence puzzles me. The word "add" used in "passive voice"! Can I change it?
Here's the sentence: Make sure there is plenty of milk and sugar to add to the tea. We've known that the word add can be used in a collocation as " "add sth to sth". We should say:add milk and sugar to the tea. So a couple of my sutdents argued it disobeyed the grammar, a wrong sentence, and should be corrected as: Make sure there is plenty of milk and sugar TO BE added to the tea. Is the sentence just a printed error? Or English-speaking countries think both are OK?

Question

I'm Chinese. A sentence puzzles me. The word "add" used in "passive voice"! Can I change it?
Here's the sentence: Make sure there is plenty of milk and sugar to add to the tea.   We've known that the word add can be used in a  collocation as " "add sth to sth".    We should say:add milk and sugar to the tea.    So a couple of my sutdents argued it disobeyed the grammar,  a wrong sentence, and should be corrected as: Make sure there is plenty of milk and sugar TO BE added to the tea.   Is the sentence just a printed error? Or English-speaking countries think both are OK?

Answer

The sentence is correct as written, and it’s not passive. It’s short for “Make sure there is plenty of milk and sugar *for us* to add to the tea. You could use the passive construction suggested by your students if you wanted, but really, it’s much more natural to make *people* the subject rather than the milk. Just because the passive voice exists, doesn't mean we need to use it all the time.

Edit: autocorrect changed "written" to "eaten" for some odd reason.

Answer

In addition to what Phil said: 'to be added' suggests that it must be or will be added later. In reality, it's an option.

Answer

"to be added" is the proper English form.

Answers · 3

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