Indicating obligation and willingness
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Using adjectives to indicate obligation | page 6 of 6 |
Structures associated with adjectives
When indicating degrees of obligation, a large number of past participles are commonly used in passive structures beginning with You are:
You are advised to help ...
You are recommended to help ...
You are expected to help ...
For further information about verbs commonly used in this structure, see 
Indicating obligation and willingness: Using verbs to indicate
obligation.
Note that a more impersonal effect can be achieved by using
adjectives in descriptive clauses 
in structures beginning with It is:
It is advisable to help ...
It is recommended that you help ...
It is expected that you will help ...
When dealing with adjectives which are used to express obligation, it is important to be aware of the different structures associated with each adjective. When used in descriptive clauses, most adjectives can be followed by a that clause or a to-infinitive with no great difference in meaning:
It is important that you can do sums quickly. (Bank of English)
It is important to do sums quickly.
Consider also:
Ming Pao reporter To Fook-leung said he could not tell what was a state secret even after seven years of China reporting experience. "It is better to have written guidelines,'' he said. (SCMP 6/4/94)
He said it was better that the new immigrants were in Singapore, competing against Singaporeans individually but strengthening Singapore as a whole. (SCMP 6/6/92)
Note that adjectives can be used to end a clause or sentence where it is clear from the context which word or words have been left out:
(With respect to insurance) there can be few worse places to be killed than in an air crash. Better to be killed in a traffic accident on the way to the airport than on board the plane - far better [^]. (SCMP 4/6/94)
... far better [to be killed in a traffic accident on the way to the airport than on board the plane].
For further information about omitting words, see Developing
cohesion: Ellipsis.
Structures associated with adjectives
