emailtransitive-verbs
When casually writing email I find myself using forward like this:
I forwarded him the email with your info.
Is the above version grammatically correct?
I forwarded the email with your info to him
somehow sounds more proper. Given that
I sent you a letter
is structured exactly the same way, it seems like it should work the same with forward.
Is this usage accepted? Why might it still sound odd to me, assuming it is in fact correct?
“To find x y” is a common construction in English, though it usually takes an object pronoun:
I find him quite dashing.
I find myself lost for words.
This presumably comes from a shortening of “to find that x is y”.
I think that analysis applies equally well to “find x enclosed/attached/herewith”. I think we can attribute the fronting of the adjective—whether before the object or further before the verb—to the usual shifts in word order that accompany formal language.
Following please find your examples, reordered:
Please find our price list enclosed.
Please find the updated contract attached.
Please find my expense report for ice cream herewith.
Please find your daughter's report card attached.
In the 19th century and before, the transitive use of procrastinate in the sense ‘delay, postpone’ is quite frequent:
This motion was opposed as tending to procrastinate the funding business, and as leading to excite invidious comparisons respecting the relative merits and exertions of the several States. — Gazette of the United States (New York) 24 April 1790.
… too long had Bonaparte procrastinated the ULTIMATUM, in hopes of favoring the arrival of his homeward bound ships, many of which have long before this found their way into British ports. — Sydney Gazette, 22 Jan. 1804.
… that policy of Spain which has hitherto procrastinated the amicable adjustment of these interests … — Genius of Liberty (Leesburg VA), Number 12, 31 March 1818.
The inclemency of the weather while on his journey and several disappointments and delays in business procrastinated his return ... — The Western Register and Terre-Haute Advertiser, 3 Dec. 1823.
Uncertainty as to her fate, and the solicitude of preparation, had hitherto procrastinated the thought of leave-taking. — Epes Sargent, Fleetwood; or, The Stain of Birth. A Novel of American Life, 1845. COHA
Over the course of the century, however, transitive procrastinate suffers a dramatic reduction in frequency, virtually disappearing by the 1960s, as this NGram suggests:
This usage, though now infrequent, could still make an appearance in 1953:
Since the fair and reasonable over-all proposal on the Political Conference was put forward by the Korean-Chinese side on November 30, the United States side has again created unnecessary arguments and has procrastinated the discussions for five days, and there is no solution in sight as yet. — American Consulate General, Survey of China Mainland Press Issues 698-718, 54. 1953. Typescript
Note that this query will also result in false hits such as procrastinated the whole afternoon or “procrastinate. The” despite the claim that an NGram search is case-sensitive. Results after about 1945 are mostly of this nature. The modern use of transitive procrastinate is actually less than the graph would indicate.
A procrastinator, someone who habitually delays completing expected tasks, is usually met with disapproval:
The incorrigible procrastinator had had his only son unsuccesssully inoculated for the small-pox. — Sydney Smith, The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal, 1804.
And although I wrote him twice, I got no answer; but I knew him for an idler, and a procrastinator, and suffered no astonishment from his silence. — The Metropolitan Magazine 9 (1843), 423.
Procrastinators habitually procrastinate, and this action — or rather inaction — is intransitive.
Intransitive procrastinate means either putting off some task or merely stalling for time, today by far the more frequent usage of the verb:
… although they doubtless wish to procrastinate, the more securely to carry on their piracies.— Gazette of the United States & Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia) 1800-1801, 3 July 1800.
I did not sleep well that night. How could I? Things were come to a bearing, I knew my father's temper too well to think that he would wait any longer. By one means and another I had procrastinated and put off for more than a twelvemonth, and a greater delay was impossible to expect. — Indiana Palladium (Lawrenceburg) 4, 16, 26 April 1828.
What is the trouble— are we snoozing, or just procrastinating? — Liaison: The Courier of the Big Gun Corps, 98, 1918.
To contemporary native speakers, many of whom will only be familiar with the intransitive “procrastinator” meaning of the verb, suddenly being confronted with a transitive procrastinate will likely seem grammatically incorrect or at best archaic. Certainly a revival of the transitive use should only be attempted in a higher register and not by forcing the intransitive to take an object. If you don’t want to do the dishes or clean out the basement, you’d best be advised to postpone, delay, or simply put off the task rather than procastinate the doing or cleaning.
Best Answer
I agree with Barrie England. Both versions sound proper to me. This is probably a new usage of the word forward that came about with email use, but since native speakers accept it in both ways, it's fine.