We can say both of the following:
- The carrots need to be chopped.
- The carrots need chopping.
How does the grammar of these sentences affect their meaning? Why is it that in these instances need takes a passive infinitival clause in (1) but an active gerund-participle clause in (2)?
Relating to this, why is it that we cannot say either of the following instead of the examples above:
- *The carrots need to chop.
- *The carrots need being chopped.
This question is being asked because of this question here, which got migrated to ELL.
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