Dear sir,
Concerning this question
-Because of the bad weather conditions, British Airways regrets……..its flight to Cairo.
a) to cancel
b) cancelling
I think b (cancelling)is ok here.
It means the action is done.
If we choose “to cancel” it refers to something that it hasn’t been done yet, but we feel regret in our mind to do it.If we say “to cancel” the passengers may think the flight cancellation is still under discussion.I think gerund means; 1-cancelling 2-regretting.
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Hi, Mohamed A. Siea,
@Mohamed A.Siead posted:Dear sir,
Concerning this question
-Because of the bad weather conditions, British Airways regrets……..its flight to Cairo.
a) to cancel
b) cancelling
I think b (cancelling)is ok here.It means the action is done.
If we choose “to cancel” it refers to something that it hasn’t been done yet, but we feel regret in our mind to do it.If we say “to cancel” the passengers may think the flight cancellation is still under discussion.I think gerund means; 1-cancelling 2-regretting.
No, 'a' is the normal one to use here. This is a formal announcement that is naturally used at different airports. Regret to + inf. can refer to the future or the present. Regret + 'v.ing' means that British Airways have done something stupid that they regret now. See a similar example here:
Firstly, thank you.
You mean that “cancelling” would mean that they shouldn’t have done this, yet I think it might not be a mistake, it is rather an effect of an controlled cause which is “Because of the bad weather conditions,..”I think we should add the word ‘to announce the cancellation” to omit confusion as the action of the gerund happened before the action of the verb “regret.Also we can say that the action of the infinitive happened after the verb ‘regret’ or perhaps hasn’t happened yet.I believe that the sentence will be ok if we add “to announce the cancellation” because either “to cancel or cancelling” wouldn’t add to the meaning, why the company feels regret for something that would be good for the passengers.
@Mohamed A.Siead posted:-Because of the bad weather conditions, British Airways regrets……..its flight to Cairo.
a) to cancel
b) cancelling
Hi, Mohamed and Ahmed—Neither choice works well here, and I don't like the way the sentence is structured, though I agree with Ahmed that the infinitive is heading in the right direction, and with you, Mohamed, that there should be a verb like "announce" (or "inform").
As you can see from the dictionary entries at the link Ahmed has given, when "regret" is used in this way, it is followed by an infinitival construction, not by a substantive -ing construction, and it is also followed by a verb of speaking. I'd change the sentence as follows, relocating the "because" phrase:
Thank you.
