Hi Melanie,

Thank you for the great comment! Your explanation is very easy to understand and cleared most of my question. However, Is the rule also able to apply to passive sentences?

Here are the examples I’d like to know which one is better. I appreciate you could give me some advice.

1-a, An autopsy will be performed to clarify the cause.
1-b, An autopsy will be performed for clarifying the cause.
1-d, An autopsy will be performed for clarification of the cause.

2-a, The neck of the patient was palpated with forefinger to observe the symptom.
2-b, The neck of the patient was palpated with forefinger for observing the symptom.
2-c, The neck of the patient was palpated with forefinger for the observation of the symptom.

3-a, The beaker was filled with water to prepare ABC solution.
3-b, The beaker was filled with water for preparing ABC solution.
3-c, The beaker was filled with water for the preparation of ABC solution.

To me, using infinitives seems natural for expressing “in order to” or “for the purpose of” in the sentences above, even though both gerunds and infinitives can be allow to use for the verbs. However, some says that the subject of the infinitive should be equal to the subject of the sentence, therefore in these case, a gerund should be chosen. Is this right?

Even If both can be allow to use, I still have a concern that the gerund in 1-b seems to be the reason, no the purpose. Also, the gerunds in 2-b and 3-b seem to be modifiers of the nouns just before them.

I am sorry about being long question, but here is one more I would like to clear about.

4-a, To determine the concentrations, the argon was collected.
4-b, For determining the concentration, the argon was collected.
4-c, For the determination of the concentration, the argon was collected.

These sentences were remarked as dangling sentences by a native English speaker. The following is that I fixed. Are there ok or not?

4-a, In order to determine the concentrations, the argon was collected.
4-b, For the purpose of determining the concentration, the argon was collected.
4-c, As for the determination of the concentration, the argon was collected.

I hope you have a time to answer my question.

Best regards,
Hiromi

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Hello Hiromi,

Wow! Good questions! This is really advanced grammar. Are you in medical school?

I had to think about this for a bit, but I believe the rule still applies in the passive:
1-a, An autopsy will be performed to clarify the cause.
2-a, The neck of the patient was palpated with forefinger to observe the symptom.
3-a, The beaker was filled with water to prepare ABC solution.

Even though it is not said in the sentence, someone is performing the procedures, so you’re still talking about someone’s purpose or the reason why someone is doing something.

One way to check is just to type the phrase into Google! I typed in “An autopsy will be performed to” and “An autopsy will be performed for” (none of the results with ‘for’ included a gerund).

To me, both 4-a sentences sound correct, not 4-b or 4-c:
4-a, To determine the concentrations, the argon was collected.
4-a, In order to determine the concentrations, the argon was collected.

Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with that sentence!

You have obviously achieved a very high level of English! Well done = ) I hope my reply has helped you.

Take care,
Melanie

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Hi Melanie,

Thank you so much for your helpful answer! I was relieved the sentences you selected was which I had thought correct. Like you said, I would use Google search more often.

I work for a pharmaceutical laboratory, and I translate reports written in Japanese to English once in a while. So I need to know proper grammar. I will definitely come back here when I am not confident about grammar rule.

Thank you again,
Hiromi

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