looking forward to finding

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Tukanja
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looking forward to finding

Post by Tukanja »

Learning the language I came across these sentences

I hope to meet someone with the same interest to go to discos and clubs with.
I am looking forward to finding someone who will be a good friend and dancing partner.

Why not

I am looking forward to find someone who will be a good friend and dancing partner. or

I look forward to finding someone who will be a good friend and dancing partner.

These two I proposed are different in their meanings for me.

Furthermore I have a doubt about is it correct to use the word find with its the present participle form like verb due to the fact that the form finding is also a noun.

finding ~ a piece of information that is discovered during an official examination of a problem, situation or object:
The report's finding on the decrease in violent crime supports the police chief's claims.(from a dictionary)

Please someone tell his opinion or explain why "looking forward" together with "to finding".

Does it mean that his intention is to go on every day further and further with his looking for a new and better partner or what?

Thanks a lot
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Joe
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Re: looking forward to finding

Post by Joe »

Why not

I am looking forward to find someone who will be a good friend and dancing partner.
look forward to (verb): to await eagerly

In this phrasal verb "to" is a preposition. What always follows a preposition?
(http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prep ... s-rule.htm)
Why not

I look forward to finding someone who will be a good friend and dancing partner.
This is certainly possible. It is more formal though. The present simple tense tends to be more formal than the present continuous tense.
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Re: looking forward to finding

Post by Joe »

Tukanja wrote:Furthermore I have a doubt about is it correct to use the word find with its the present participle form like verb due to the fact that the form finding is also a noun.

finding ~ a piece of information that is discovered during an official examination of a problem, situation or object:
The report's finding on the decrease in violent crime supports the police chief's claims.(from a dictionary)

Please someone tell his opinion or explain why "looking forward" together with "to finding".

Does it mean that his intention is to go on every day further and further with his looking for a new and better partner or what?
I look forward to our meeting
I look forward to your reply
I look forward to seeing you
I look forward to hearing from you
I am looking forward to lunch
I am looking forward to Christmas
I am looking forward to playing squash with you

"I [am] look[ing] forward to hearing from you" is a classic ending for letters (especially business letters).
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Tukanja
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Re: looking forward to finding

Post by Tukanja »

After I got the info from you Josef :-) that the word "to" is a preposition here and looked up in the dictionary about the phrasal verb "look forward to" now it seems to me that

I am looking forward to your answer is the very correct form of the phrase

I+ (look forward to)+ (something nice, pleased, or excited..)

As you have said "something" could be also

someone's reply, seeing someone, hearing from someone, etc, where "hearing from you" is a complex noun, I think.

Furthermore now I think I have realised that in the sentence

I am looking forward to finding someone who will be a good friend and dancing partner

the writer wanted to emphasis that the time in which we search for someone is not less exciting than the time after one has been found!

If not, then the sentence

I am looking forward to someone who will be a good friend and dancing partner would be quite 'right., I think.

As you know, my dear friends, I always look forward to hearing from you. :-)
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Re: looking forward to finding

Post by Tukanja »

After a bit more learning about and analysing the matter I would like to add the next

Seems to me that if I use the phrasal verb (form) "looking forward to", I may use the preposition "to" with the ordinary nouns such as bread, water, beauty queen, love, child etc.
But if I use nouns which were made from a verb (gerund)then I prefer to use the preposition "towards" instead of the preposition "to".

Regarding the topic's original sentence my choice is next

I am looking forward towards finding someone who will be my good friend and dancing partner. ("towards" instead of "to")

What do you think? :-)
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Re: looking forward to finding

Post by Joe »

This is a fixed expression and the correct, idiomatic form is:
I am looking forward to finding someone who will be my good friend and dancing partner.
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