Correct wording in a sentence

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Can I say "I will write the director" or should I say "I will write to the director"

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@jcooper,

I will write to the director and then go down the pub.

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@jcooper,

The 2d is more explicit Jc but the 1st is collo; either is okay

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jcooper, the answer to your question depends on whether you wish to write in United States English or not. In US English they write someone. Elsewhere we write to someone.

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@jcooper,

The second example is the best one. Although the first sentence is correct also.

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I was just mulling over the phrase "try and", as in "I will try and be there tomorrow". We use it all the time, and it just doesn't make sense. "I will try to be there tomorrow" works.

We hear "I will write him tomorrow" often enough, but it just doesn't make sense. "I will write to him" does.

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@roger,

It stems from the habit of dropping prepositions when we speak. Some people think that they make sentences wordy and are unnecessary, but the habit can make written sentences ambiguous.

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@roger,

There is just so much damn piffle in this thread.

Quote:

I was just mulling over the phrase "try and", as in "I will try and be there tomorrow". We use it all the time, and it just doesn't make sense. "I will try to be there tomorrow" works.

No, Roger, you were not mulling it over. You are simply repeating another silly old canard that has led you to stop thinking. You use it all the time precisely because it does make sense. Speakers of a language don't use nonsensical structures.

One writer has remarked on those that repeat this nonsense about 'try and'; "This proves nothing but the lengths to which the wrongheaded will go to make nonexistent points" [Copperud 1980]

'try and' has been around since the 17th century. It has been used by Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Andy Rooney, Herman Melville, EB White, F Scott Fitzgerald, and numerous other writers.

Quote:

We hear "I will write him tomorrow" often enough, but it just doesn't make sense. "I will write to him" does.

If the first doesn't make sense then how is it that you were able to write it?

You suggest we need 'to', that we can't do without it. Do you purpose that we write,

"I will write to him a letter tomorrow" ?

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@contrex,

Quote:

Elsewhere we write to someone.

Do you,

Write to someone a letter ?

Do you

Write to John an email ?

Do you

Write to her a note ?

1 Reply

@jcooper,

Quote:

Can I say "I will write the director" or should I say "I will write to the director"

You can say/write either, JCooper, and you can feel completely confident that you are following the rules of English grammar.

There are quite a few verbs in English, 'write' is one of them, where there can be a direct and an indirect object. For some, like 'write', it isn't obligatory to have both; we can drop the understood indirect object.

I will write the director [a letter/a note/an email].

?? I will write to the director [a letter/a note/an email]. ??

When we switch the positioning, putting the indirect object first, 'to' becomes obligatory.

I will write a letter/a note/an email to the director.

1 Reply

@jcooper,

Such a statement is contextual, and inference is understood.

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@cicerone imposter,

All statements are contextual, CI. Some more than others.

Quote:

and inference is understood.

What does this mean?

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Quote:
Elsewhere we write to someone.

Do you,

Write to someone a letter ?

Do you

Write to John an email ?

Do you

Write to her a note ?

I was clearly (to a person of normal intelligence) responding to the original question, which I shall here quote:

Can I say "I will write the director" or should I say "I will write to the director".

Why you wrote that stupid bollocks I cannot imagine.

1 Reply

JTT answers a different question from the one asked. Jerkwad.

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@JTT,

"to" is not obligatory. Where did you learn English? A complete sentence only has to have a verb and a noun.

That's basic English.

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@contrex,

Quote:

I was clearly (to a person of normal intelligence) responding to the original question, which I shall here quote:

Can I say "I will write the director" or should I say "I will write to the director".

Why you wrote that stupid bollocks I cannot imagine.

The same question I asked of you in the post to which you replied but failed to addressed, applies to the following too , Contrex.

Do you say "I will write to the director a letter" ?

Do you say "I will write to him a letter" ?

Do you say "I will write to her a note" ?

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

cicerone imposter wrote:

"to" is not obligatory. Where did you learn English? A complete sentence only has to have a verb and a noun. That's basic English.

Yes. But Cooper's sentence contains an object.

Should he simply say: I will write."?

1 Reply

@neologist,

That is contextual; that kind of sentence usually follows why that completes what was said before.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

Quote:

"to" is not obligatory.

Don't tell me, CI. I know that. That's what I've described. Tell Roger, Contrex, ... .

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@cicerone imposter,

Just pullin yer chain, CI

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Correct wording in a sentence

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