Mona
Hi I have some questions about the grammar structure of the below sentence. I'd really appreciate it if you could help me to find the answers. The sentence: Retraining an employee means that companies can save a lot of money recruiting and training new ones First, is the sentence grammatically okay? (in my view, only when is '' to'' or ''for'' added between the noun ''money'' and the verb '' recruit'', the sentence makes sense. Second, are these two sentences identical? 1- Retraining an employee means that companies can save a lot of money FOR recruitING and trainING new ones 2- Retraining an employee means that companies can save a lot of money TO recruite and train new ones
Jan 18, 2021 2:48 PM
Answers · 15
1
I think you have misunderstood the meaning of the original sentence. You seem to think it means: By retraining employees, companies will save money. They can use this money to recruit and train new employees. Your rewrites have this meaning. However, the meaning of the original sentence (which is grammatically correct) is as follows: By retraining employees, companies will save the money they would otherwise have spent on recruiting and training new employees
January 18, 2021
1
The meaning of the original sentence can only be deduced from the context. If there is no preposition, we would assume that “by” is being dropped. For example, I can save money cooking my own food. I can save money by cooking my own food. Sentences with meanings similar to “they would otherwise have spent on” Companies can save money (by) not recruiting and training new employees. Companies can save money (by) recruiting and training fewer new employees. Companies can save money on recruiting and training new employees. To me, “on” is the most general. For the other two, I would keep the “by” Using “for” and “to” are similar to each other but have a different meaning than “on”
January 19, 2021
1
The second sentence with ‘to’ sounds better because the ‘to’ comes from ‘in order to’ which would make more sense in this case, but for has the same meaning in some contexts so the first sentence still makes perfect sense.
January 18, 2021
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