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Old 12-29-2009, 01:06 PM   #55
Shawnee123
Why, you're a regular Alfred E Einstein, ain't ya?
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 21,206
The car needs cleaned does sound a bit off, but it's still correct. Which is more nearly correct? I don't know. I tend to leave "to be" out of sentences when I don't think the extra words are needed. I do this so I have room for more filler in the way of run-on sentences, dangling participles, and extreme hyberbole.

Also, the act of "being cleaned" is a physical, tangible thing. The process of being enlightened is not a tangible thing. Intangibles have other rules sometimes, such as subjunctive mood (saying "I wish I were somewhere else" as opposed to saying "I wish I was somewhere else." If, and wish, call you to use were, not was. I don't know if this is relevant, but in my ear, in that sentence, "to be" was extraneous.

I won't even start on whether or not I should have used "need" instead of "needs" since "us" was a collective. I have no idea.
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