Was ist der Unterschied zwischen What we mainly do is provide a regular maintenance service for internet connections. und What we mainly do is to provide a regular maintenance service for internet connections. ?Du kannst auch einfach Beispielsätze geben.

I found the first sentence in a text, and it looks ungrammatical for me though.

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Robocannon

16 Jan 2019

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Englisch (US)
Englisch (UK)

@mimi444 That rule is kind of correct.

The tense of sentence determines whether you use the infinitive (a verb in it's base form) or the gerund (a verb with -ing attached)

A verb in it's gerund form essentially functions as a noun.

"I'm move.." doesn't make sense because 'move' is the infinitive - it doesn't have tense. You are literally saying that you are 'move'. "私は動く"

For this sentence to be correct, you'd need to add tense to the sentence.
"I am moving" (私は動いています)
"I moved" (私は動いていました) <--- I'm not 100% this translation is correct, sorry

So clarify on what you were taught; you can't put a verb in its' base form (example = provide, run, talk) after 'is' if tense has not been clarified elsewhere in the sentence.

A verb in it's gerund form (example = providing, running, talking) functions as a noun, so follows the same rules as a noun.

That was kind of difficult to explain so let me know if you need more clarification.

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Robocannon

16 Jan 2019

Englisch (US)
Englisch (UK)

They mean the same thing.

"What we mainly do is provide a..." is the more natural version though.

"What we mainly do is to provide a..." makes perfect sense but sounds a little more formal to me.

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quolia444

16 Jan 2019

Japanisch

@Robocannon thank you for your answer! we've learned that we can't put a verb as it is after be verb ( =is) . say... we can't say.... I'm move . Does "is provide" grammatical?

Could you kindly listen to the audio for this text in my another post.?
Does he really say " is provide " instead of "is to provide"?

Robocannon

16 Jan 2019

Englisch (US)
Englisch (UK)

@mimi444 That rule is kind of correct.

The tense of sentence determines whether you use the infinitive (a verb in it's base form) or the gerund (a verb with -ing attached)

A verb in it's gerund form essentially functions as a noun.

"I'm move.." doesn't make sense because 'move' is the infinitive - it doesn't have tense. You are literally saying that you are 'move'. "私は動く"

For this sentence to be correct, you'd need to add tense to the sentence.
"I am moving" (私は動いています)
"I moved" (私は動いていました) <--- I'm not 100% this translation is correct, sorry

So clarify on what you were taught; you can't put a verb in its' base form (example = provide, run, talk) after 'is' if tense has not been clarified elsewhere in the sentence.

A verb in it's gerund form (example = providing, running, talking) functions as a noun, so follows the same rules as a noun.

That was kind of difficult to explain so let me know if you need more clarification.

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Robocannon

16 Jan 2019

Englisch (US)
Englisch (UK)

This may also be helpful;

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/everyday-...

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quolia444

23 Jan 2019

Japanisch

@Robocannon hi! Thank you for your kind answers and suggestions.

Now I just remember that toのつかない不定詞を原形不定詞と言う。
An infinitive without a 'to' attached is called a bare infinitive. -
In the sentence”What we mainly do is (to) provide ... “ , we can omit the (to) in this style in SVC.

Thank you for your explanation. You helped me a lot.