Look out!

Wise Words: look forward to

What’s your reaction when you read the following sentence?

“We look forward to hearing from you.”

Do you think there’s something wrong with it? Are you wondering if it’s incorrect? Do you think the grammar is off?

The sentence was the correct answer to a new e-mail quiz we created for Spiegel Online. Not everyone who did the test, however, could accept that this sentence is correct. We received some irate comments from readers who wanted to point out that we had made a serious mistake. Here are just three of them.

• Die Grammatik schmerzt beim Lesen!

• Dass es tatsächlich “to hearing from you” heißen soll - hier finden viele Englisch-Lehrer, dass der Infinitiv to hear erreicht werden sollte und nicht das von Ihnen offenbar präferierte Gerundium "hearing" - oder ist das Ihrer Meinung nach im Partizip richtig?

• "To" verlangt ein Infinitiv, den Gerund zu benutzen ist bestenfalls fraglich.

I wasn’t surprised that people wrote in to query our answer, but I was surprised at how convinced they were that they were right. (One even accused me of being "just an intern" as only someone with so little experience would make such a mistake. At first, I felt flattered, but then I realized that my photo wasn't on the test so the reader wasn't talking about my appearance — just my intelligence!)

So, was I wrong to mark the sentence as correct? Of course not.

It is perfectly correct to say "We look/are looking forward to hearing from you" and it’s a sentence you can use in e-mails, in letters, in person and on the phone. You can use it — and you should use it — regularly in business situations.

To understand why we use the "-ing form" after the structure “look forward to” we have to take a closer look at the different parts of this phrasal verb.

“Look forward to doing something” combines a verb (look) with an adverbial particle (forward) and a preposition (to). It’s important to realize that “to” is not part of an infinitive. The “to” is part of “look forward to”. It's a phrasal verb made up of three parts. As this phrasal verb ends with a preposition, it must be followed by the “-ing form”.

• We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. (formal)
• I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon. (slightly informal)
  
• Looking forward to seeing you. (more informal)
• I’m really looking forward to seeing my parents this weekend.
• I’ve been looking forward to going on holiday for months!

There are other phrasal verbs that behave the same way:

• Did you get round to finishing the report?
  
• We need to get down to writing the invitations this week.

I can understand why the readers were so convinced that they were right. Many people confuse this expression with the normal "to + infinitive" ("I hope to see you", "I want to go home", "I plan to go to Berlin", etc).

It's a good idea to learn the rules of grammar. It's also a good idea, however, to be open to exceptions — and new rules.