Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
admits to being
English answer:
admits to being = correct
- The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2014-11-15 22:54:08 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
English term
admits to being
I'm translating a short text and I came across the sentence below which I think
is wrong in English. I wouldn't have used admit to + gerund, I go for ADMIT + TO infitintive
May be Im wrong?
Could you please help me out. Thanks in advance
"At dinner parties, no one admits to being a tourist. They are travellers..."
my translation even if I don't agree with the English version:
En las cenas nadie admite ser un turista.
| 5 +8 | admits to being = correct |
Sheila Wilson
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Nov 12, 2014 23:30: Charles Davis changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): Sheila Wilson, Jennifer Levey, Charles Davis
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Responses
Spain
20 years producing 100% natural English
Native in: English (Variant: British) 
Works in: English, French to English
admits to being = correct
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Note added at 1 hr (2014-11-12 21:49:12 GMT)
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Well, that is a pretty poor dictionary entry - surprising to say the least. It leaves out "admit to + -ing". But it doesn't say that "admit to + inf" is correct. To be honest, you're better off with a learner's dictionary such as the one I linked to. They give all the various verb patterns in full.
| Thank you very much Sheila. I chcked Oxford http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/admit |
| Thank you very much Sheila. You were very helpful. Just to add another poor dictionary: Cambridge. I checked it as well :-), that's why I got confused. |
| agree |
Tony M
: I think maybe Asker is getting confused because it isn't a gerund! AFAIK, it is a gerundive?
12 mins
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Thanks - no idea what it's called other than the "-ing form" of the verb
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| agree |
Jennifer Levey
: Yeah! - and I hate to say it ... but 'admit to be' is a typical 'non-native error'.
21 mins
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Thanks
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| agree |
Armorel Young
: It's perfectly correct, and indeed I can't think of any other construction that could be used after "admits to" in this sense.
26 mins
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Thanks
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| agree |
Veronika McLaren
: It's a gerund alright - verb used as noun, object of preposition "to"
1 hr
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Thanks
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| agree |
Charles Davis
: Yes, it is a gerund. I think you're rather hard on the Oxford entry. It defines this use of "admit" quite correctly in 1.1. Users are expected to know that if "admit to" cannot be followed by an infinitive, because what follows "to" must be a noun.
2 hrs
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Thanks - well, it's certainly good enough for me :). The learners' version is much better for non-native speakers though. They are the only type I'm used to for grammar reference (as an EFL trainer).
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| agree |
Jean-Claude Gouin
9 hrs
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Thanks
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| agree |
Arabic & More
11 hrs
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Thanks
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| agree |
Maria Fokin
12 hrs
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Thanks
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Discussion