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Sun 4 Sep, 2005 01:21 pm
Hi,
I've just read in an English grammar book that it's not correct to say "He promised me to go to the party" but "He promised to go to the party", without the object. But I think I have seen the structure "to promise somebody to do something" many times. Is that incorrect after all?
It's very common in speech and in formal writing, but in strictly formal prose is incorrect. The formally correct construction is "he promised me that he would", but in speech this would sound rather quaint and laboured. So it's a matter for judgement in any given situation whether it is appropriate to be correct or to be relaxed and colloquial.
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