Learn English – It is possible + infinitive

grammarsyntactic-analysis

It is not possible to keep abreast of the normal tides of acquisition. (Source)

Can someone analyze this sentence?

My first thought was that the infinitive 'to keep' modifies possible, but then I started to doubt myself because if you make the infinitive the subject, the sentence has the same meaning. You can say "to keep abreast of the normal tides of acquisition is not possible".

What say you?

Best Answer

It might by easier to think of "keep abreast of" as a verbal phrase which is syntactically similar to (but not equivalent to) "monitor"

"It is not possible to monitor the normal tides of acquisition."

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