bubu1992
afford + ing? I've been taught that "afford + infinitive" is correct but I came across a sentence with "afford + gerund." That's the sentence: "We can’t afford having our customers being held up by downtime,” he adds. Is this correct?
Jul 30, 2019 9:09 PM
Answers · 3
1
It's okay for casual speech, but the sentence would sound better with "afford" + infinitive. The use of "being" is grammatically wrong, though. It should really say, "We can’t afford to have our customers BE held up by downtime." Because this is a quote, the mistake is understandable and not very important. People often make small grammar errors in speech.
July 31, 2019
1
From my point of view, afford + infinitive and afford + gerund are basically the same and can be used interchangeably. In fact your sentence would be correct even if you used afford + infinitive and would still have the same meaning.
July 30, 2019
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