promise somebody to do something? (2025)

I wonder is there is a structure " promise sb to do sth" . Because I have done an exercise and it contains this one:

I was careful enough not to promise them ___ their daughter to France for the summer holiday.
A. to invite
B. invite
C. inviting
D. an invitation of

I chose D but the key shows the answer A . I really don't understand.

I am a learner. Hope your help!

Thanks in advance!

According to the following examples I would select also D.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/promise_1

I think this is the case when "promise" gets 2 objectives (no infinitive).

Let's see what others have to say.

I think it is accurate to say that there is a far broader verb structure of:
{subject} {verb} {object} +[{verb} {object}]
{I} [was careful enough not to] {promise} {them} to {invite} {their daughter}

That sentence just conforms to this structure.

The reason why D is incorrect is that you would never say "an invitation of" in this way in any sentence, besides this example. If you wanted to use the word invitation in this case, you should say "I was careful enough not to promise them an invitation for/to their daughter."

Hi michael

Actually, none of the options looks right to me. Simplifying:

I promised to invite their daughter
I promised them to invite their daughter

I promised them an invitation to France
I promised them an invitation of their daughter to France

Strange, I was taught that "promise somebody to do something" is a perfectly acceptable structure.

I promised him to buy the milk on my way home.

I promise to do it later.
I promise that I will do it later.

Both valid. First sentence arguably simpler and more efficient.

linguos said:

Strange, I was taught that "promise somebody to do something" is a perfectly acceptable structure.

I promised him to buy the milk on my way home.

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It is, in fact, to my way of thinking it is more efficient than saying promise somebody that I would do something.

Imagine the phrase: (shouting) Don't promise to do it if you can't do it! converted to Don't promise that you will something if you can't do it!

Maybe this is a Brit. vs American English thing.

I agree with Loob: you can promise someone something, or promise someone that you'll do something, or promise to do something, but not promise someone to do something. The OED does have a modern example of this:

I had promised Sarah to take 1000mg of VitC+Zinc every night if I went drinking. [from a 1998 book Rancid Aluminium]

But I would have to say that as 'I had promised Sarah that I would take . . .' None of the (admittedly small) 31 instances of 'promise them' in the British National Corpus are followed by an infinitive clause.

linguos said:

Strange, I was taught that "promise somebody to do something" is a perfectly acceptable structure.

I promised him to buy the milk on my way home.

Click to expand...

Yes, it makes perfect sense - and is definitely the best answer.

To me "I promised him to buy the milk" sounds slightly wrong, but 'to' can be swapped with a similarly short word: "I promised him I'd buy the milk".

Or, in the case of the first post:
I was careful enough not to promise them I'd invite their daughter to France for the summer holiday.

You might even want to slip a that in before the I'd, if you wanted to be even more gramatically correct (eliding 'that' could make the sentence too confusing in the case of too many subjects/objects).

Yes, but I'm sure I heard people saying things like "I promised him to buy the milk on my way home" many times.

What's even more funny now, I've just found an entry in one of the Larousse's English to French dictionariesand you can find there something like this:

promise [pledge] - promettre

to promise something to somebody, to promise somebody something - promettre quelque chose à quelqu'un
to promise somebody to do something - promettre à quelqu'un de faire quelque chose

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So the French also believe this contruction to be correct!

If you think about it carefully, 'I promised him to buy the milk on my way home' is

the best, even if 'that I would' is used more.

The original direct statement was 'I am going to buy milk', or 'I promise you that I am going to buy milk'. So we are now saying 'i promised him that I was going to buy milk', or more casually, 'i promised him to buy milk', where the

.

It just so happens that this often more naturally comes out as 'I would'.

linguos said:

Strange, I was taught that "promise somebody to do something" is a perfectly acceptable structure.

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That's entirely possible, linguos. Promise + object + to-infinitive seems to have been unremarkable in older forms of English. Here's an example from the King James Bible:

2 Kings 8:19
Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children.
​

It's also entirely possible that it's still used in some varieties of English. A Google News search on "promised them to" throws up, for instance, this Sri Lankan example:

That said, the (BrE) textbooks I have (Martin Hewings' Advanced Grammar in Use, and Michael Swan's Practical English Usage) advise against this construction.

(And I don't use it.)

I think it's just like any other verb... eg. I told him to do it, I sent him to hell (I promised him to come).

Actually, I believe you could equally flip round the "promise that I would" form to other verbs, eg. I ran that I might escape, I told him that he would do it, I sent him that he would go to hell (admittedly this sounds very archaic, but I as far as I know it is still a valid form!).. It's just a matter of common usage, what you are more comfortable with.

I can't see why you would allow I promised to do it, but not I promised him to do it. Although I do concede kalamazoo's point that sometimes the "promise that" form is clearer in terms of who is promising who.

Archstudent said:

I think it's just like any other verb... eg. I told him to do it, I sent him to hell (I promised him to come).

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"Any other verb" appears rather sweeping, Archstudent: I offered him to do it? I threatened him to do it?

But I fully accept that I promised him to do it seems fine to you.

Hello everyone!

Sorry for raising the issue again, but I wonder if, after over 10 years, there has been a development in accepting the “promise someone to do something“ structure.

Here are some sentences I’ve come across:

A) Bruce promised Billy to buy him a nice present.
B) Bruce promised to buy Billy a nice present.
C) Bruce promised Billy (that) he would buy him a nice present.

Could you please tell me if any of the above sentences are incorrect?

Thanks in advance!

I'd say that all three are possible. However, B) has a different meaning from the other two, in that it

mean (say) "Bruce promised Billy's mom that he'd buy Billy a nice present."

Danvit said:

Sorry for raising the issue again, but I wonder if, after over 10 years, there has been a development in accepting the “promise someone to do something“ structure.

Here are some sentences I’ve come across:

A) Bruce promised Billy to buy him a nice present.
B) Bruce promised to buy Billy a nice present.
C) Bruce promised Billy (that) he would buy him a nice present.

Could you please tell me if any of the above sentences are incorrect?

Click to expand...

Hello Danvit
There's been no change in my view - A) still doesn't work for me.

Loob said:

There's been no change in my view - A) still doesn't work for me.

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... Or for me.

Danvit said:

it’s still a mystery after 10 years!!!😅

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I don't see any mystery. In my post 19, I said that it was clearly unremarkable in older forms of English. It's presumably lingered in some modern forms but not in others.

My take:

C) Bruce promised Billy (that) he would buy him a nice present.
This is fine.

B) Bruce promised to buy Billy a nice present.
This is fine, too, but it's ambiguous. It could mean the same as C. But As KB says, it could also involve a third person; it could mean that Bruce promised

that he would buy Billy a nice present.

A) Bruce promised Billy to buy him a nice present.
I find this unacceptable. It would be marked as incorrect in an English test.