These questions ask you to complete a sentence or judge whether a reporting verb is followed by a standard complement. The central task is to recognise the verb family before choosing the grammar that follows it.
Let the reporting verb choose the structure
Start by circling the reporting verb. Then ask two questions: does this verb require a person who receives advice, a reminder or a warning, and does the action begin with to or an -ing form? Do not build the complement from meaning alone. Verbs with similar meanings can require different structures.
| Verb family | Structure to use |
|---|---|
| suggest | Takes an -ing phrase or a that-clause: suggested checking, suggested that the team check. Never an object plus a to-infinitive. |
| advise, remind, warn | Name the person directly after the reporting verb, then use a to-infinitive for the action. |
| promise, offer, refuse | Put the promised, offered or refused action directly in a to-infinitive. Do not insert a person between the reporting verb and that infinitive. |
| admit, deny | Use an -ing phrase or a that-clause. An -ing phrase may be simple or perfect; admit can also be followed by prepositional to plus an -ing phrase. |
Use the frame as a final check. If a person is already present after advise, remind or warn, the next part should begin with infinitival to. If the verb is promise, offer or refuse, attach that to-infinitive directly. With admit, remember that to in admit to belongs to a prepositional pattern, so the following verb has an -ing form rather than the base form.
The traps
| Tempting pattern | How to reject it |
|---|---|
| suggest plus a person plus a to-infinitive | Suggest does not use the object-plus-infinitive frame. Move to an -ing phrase or a that-clause instead. |
| advise followed by a to-infinitive with no person | In this pattern, advice is directed to someone. Find the required person between advise and the to-infinitive. |
| advise plus a person plus a bare verb | The person is correctly placed, but the action still needs infinitival to. A bare verb does not complete this frame. |
| promise or offer plus a person before the to-infinitive | These verbs attach the action directly as a to-infinitive. The inserted person belongs to the pattern used by advise, remind and warn, not to this family. |
| admit or deny followed by an infinitive, or admit to followed by a base verb | The acknowledged or rejected action belongs in an -ing phrase or a that-clause. When admit uses prepositional to, the verb after it must still have an -ing form. |
Try it
At the crowded exhibition, Anya ___ before the final room became busy.
- suggested visiting the sculpture hall first
- suggested us to visit the sculpture hall first
- suggested to visit the sculpture hall before lunch
- suggested that us to visit the sculpture hall before the crowds arrived
Select all sentences that use the required reporting-verb complementation pattern.
- The ranger warned the swimmers to avoid the northern cove.
- The consultant advised to replace the outdated access panel immediately.
- The apprentice denied to scratch the polished surface with a clamp.
- The supplier refused to reduce the quoted delivery charge.
Complete the sentence with an -ing complement using (damage the mosaic): The tourist admitted ___.