This is a sentence in a video： "But as much fun as they are to find， as beautiful as they are to see, they can't hold a candle to the globular cluster." in YouTube video: (at 5'45'') https://youtu.b

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This is a sentence in a video： "But as much fun as they are to find， as beautiful as they are to see, they can't hold a candle to the globular cluster." in YouTube video: (at 5'45'') https://youtu.be/an4rgJ3O21A Context: "I love looking at the Pleiads (a star cluster) with binoculars, and M35 at the foot of Gemini is another must-see in the winter throught my telescope. But as much fun as they are to find, as beautiful as they are to see, they can't hold a candle to the globular cluster." My question is the word "they" in that sentence. In my opnion "they" indicates "the Pleiads". So there is a problem to understand the first clause correctly. Because I would think this means: They are much fun to find. If "They" indicates "the Pleiads cluster", why he didn't say "they are to be found"? Could anyone explain how to understand this clause "as much fun as they are to find"?

Apr 19, 2021 12:51 PM

Answers · 9

As Paul says, the sentence is saying that it is fun to find the stars. If you said it was fun "to be found," this would mean that the stars themselves are enjoying being found. Of course, the stars are not the ones who are having fun being found. People are having fun finding the stars. The same structure works with other verbs. A song can be "fun to sing," a car can be "easy to drive," a math problem can be "hard to solve." It doesn't make sense to use passive voice in any of these cases.

April 19, 2021

"as much fun as they are to find" - this is from the perspective of the finder, the person. this is an active sentence. "as much fun as they are to be found" - this would be passive. the star cluster are being found. The first sentence is better because the text is about stargazing, about discovery. And about the joy of finding such stars.

April 19, 2021

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