Learn English – Using too many ‘to’s in a sentence

adverbsgrammarinfinitivesprepositions

This may be more of a stylistic question than anything else, but I'm hoping for some general rules about using the word 'to' in a sentence and when it might be used too many times.

For example, I'm not sure there's anything wrong with the following sentence from a grammar / structure standpoint:

We are pleased to update you with our progress and to propose a new
idea to speed up our product launch into the market to generate
revenue.

I find this sentence irritating but I'm not sure exactly why outside of just "wordiness" – but that's normally a good marker (for me) that there's a mistake.

So my question is three part:

  1. Is the above sentence grammatically sound but just in need of word-crafting?
  2. What is it about the sentence that I'm finding troublesome?
  3. Are there any rules that one can remember to identify and avoid this mistake, if it is in fact a mistake?

Thanks in advance and best.

Best Answer

  1. Grammatically sound? Yes.
  2. What's troublesome? Just a bit ungainly.
  3. No actual mistakes.

Suggested rewording [words in square brackets are superfluous]:

"We are pleased to update you on our progress**,** and also propose an [new] idea that would speed up our product launch [into the market] and generate revenue.

  • Add comma after "progress" to break up the long sentence.
  • Does "new" add anything to "idea"?
  • Where would you launch the product if not "into the market"?
  • Could change "speed up" to "accelerate"
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