I see people saying things like this:
With a new infusion of cash it allows
to make the film.
…instead of…
With a new infusion of cash it allows
making the film.
I can't find a specific example right now, but it always takes the form of verb + infinitive instead of verb + participle. I've seen this repeatedly with the verb "allow"; there are others but I forget what they are.
This grates on my ears more than anything. What is the cause?
Update: Here are some examples from the web (searching Google for "allows to":
http://www.thedigitalbus.com/new-google-analytics-allows-to-measure-site-speed/
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-03-06/news/28660032_1_border-areas-mobile-towers-border-districts
http://getandroidstuff.com/clap-phone-finder-android-app-find-phone-clapping/
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=413451
These sites have constructs like "allows to steal", "allows to find", "allows to erect", and "allows to measure". Perhaps it is the missing direct object that a respondent mentioned, but the present participle is the first thing that comes to my mind: "allows stealing", "allows finding", "allows erecting", and "allows measuring".
There is also "requires to" and "helps to".
Update 2: Here are some specific examples – taken from the web pages linked above. All of these phrases are wrong:
New Google Analytics Allows to Measure Site Speed
Android app allows to find your Phone
allows to steal data from sessionstore.js
(The last one is a fragment, I know.) Here's more examples (all wrong!!):
Creating a Google Account Requires to Enter Your Birthday in the US
Host now requires to use SMTP with PHP
Smart Array 6402 always requires to press F1 to continue.
I sincerely hope this is clear now. All of the examples given need a past participle (or some sort of direct object).
Update 3: (Hope I'm not overdoing this!) I would correct each of the above examples thusly:
New Google Analytics Allows Measuring Site Speed
Android app allows you to find your Phone
allows stealing data from sessionstore.js
Creating a Google Account Requires Entering Your Birthday in the US
Host now requires using SMTP with PHP
Smart Array 6402 always requires pressing F1 to continue.
Best Answer
So, in traditional grammar these cases would be considered gerunds, not present participles, because they head noun phrases. Modern grammatical analyses of English (such as the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language) analyse gerunds and present participles as a single construct called the gerund-participle.
In any case, this error is common because some languages (I am personally familiar with Spanish, but probably there are others) have parallel constructions which are identical except for the use of the infinitive instead of the gerund.
For example the English sentence
translates as
The Spanish word hacer is the infinitive form of make, and, for native speakers of Spanish, this error is in fact quite common.