Clarification on tenses. Plz help!

[sukriti.bahl]

Dear Instructors,

I have a very unusual query. I wanted clarification on the examples I have posted below, what is right according to the GMAT and why.
Ex-1
1) I want someone to help me understand this question
2) I want someone to help me in understanding this question
3) I want someone to help me to understand this question

Ex-2

1) We look forward to hearing from you
2) We look forward to hear from you
3) We are looking forward to hearing from you
4) We are looking forward to hear from you.

I am sorry if this seems absolutely silly but I have struggled with such sentences and on the GMAT too questions similar to the lines posted above are, I believe tested.

Thanks a ton in advance,
Suk

[sukriti.bahl]

Hi ,

Does any one have an answer to this query.

Help and answers would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Sukriti

[RonPurewal]

help me understand and help me to understand are both valid forms.

you won't normally see help ... in __ing.
it's not completely impossible; for instance, you could have a sentence in which "in __ing" describes the whole clause whose verb is 'help' (e.g., Nancy helped her nephews with their math homework in preparing to be a teacher.)
even that, though, you probably won't see, because it would be better written in other ways (In preparing to be a teacher, Nancy helped her nephews with their math homework.)

[RonPurewal]

1) We look forward to hearing from you
2) We look forward to hear from you
3) We are looking forward to hearing from you
4) We are looking forward to hear from you.

this is the sort of polite communication that appears in letters, speeches, etc. the chance that it will ever appear in GMAT SC is zero.

[sukriti.bahl]

Dear Ron,

Thanks for your reply.
I agree that the chances for the conversation posted above are next to nil on the GMAT. My query was basically about the construction.

Ex -

I am looking forward to hearing from you. Is this construction right?
..ing to ..ing

or is this better

Ex -
I look forward to hear from you

[tim]

There's nothing wrong with your first construction. As for the second, I am not used to seeing it that way; I think we would be more likely to say "I look forward to hearING from you". You seem to be missing the most important fact about SC though: you should NEVER ask whether something is correct; instead, ask whether there are any errors. These may sound like flip sides of the same coin, but it will train you to do what is most fundamental to SC - looking for and eliminating incorrect answer choices rather than trying to find a correct answer.

[sukriti.bahl]

Hi Tim,

Yes you are right.. I believe that's the way to approach the GMAT. Difference is probably similar to the analogy "whether the glass is half empty or half full"..

Thanks a ton :-)

[RonPurewal]

Dear Ron,

Thanks for your reply.
I agree that the chances for the conversation posted above are next to nil on the GMAT. My query was basically about the construction.

Ex -

I am looking forward to hearing from you. Is this construction right?
..ing to ..ing

the mistake here lies in thinking that the '__ing' endings are important. they aren't; both are there by pure happenstance.

--

the verb look can take just about any form here.

some of those forms have '__ing':
I am looking forward to ...
They were looking forward to ...

others do not:
My sister looked forward to...

--

the second thing is just a noun.

you can just put a 'normal' noun there:
They looked forward to the tournament.

you can also put a '__ing' noun there, with the understanding that it's still a noun:
They looked forward to betting on the tournament.

[sukriti.bahl]

Thank you so much Ron

[RonPurewal]

you're welcome.