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English grammar question?
a. We went to shopping/fishing yesterday.
b. We went shopping/fishing yesterday.
"to" shouldn't be there?
I know (b) is right. What about (a)? Doesn't sound right?
3 Answers
- 9 years agoFavourite answer
Yes, (a) doesn't sound right. A participle (ie. shopping, fishing, running, dancing, etc.) can never follow the word "to" (unless the "-ing" word is functioning as a gerund, which it's not in this case).
You could change the sentence to this: "We went to shop/fish yesterday." However, you would slightly change the meaning of the sentence. "We went shopping/fishing yesterday" answers the question WHAT did you do at this place, while "we went to shop/fish yesterday" answers the question WHY did you go to this place.
- Anonymous9 years ago
b is the correct form.
you can't use to with ing-form. the verb should in the infinitif. thus, a-sentence would be
we went to do shopping or we went to shop yesterday
