He told me not to argue but just agree.
I think the sentence above is grammatically correct, but I'm not sure.
In fact, I have a hard time choosing between the following sentences:
He told me not to argue and just agree.
He told me not to argue but to just agree.
He told me not to argue and to just agree.
I seem completely lost and have been playing the guessing game. Someone help me?
Best Answer
The infinitive to is not dispensed with in the second instance of the sentence.
It is just omitted, to be understood by the reader. This is known as ellipsis.
So the two forms of the sentence are identical, technically and semantically.
Both of them are correct.
[Edit] Pl. read in conjunction with my comments below re: and / but.