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January 25, 2013

Mean

This week from Mcmillan Dictionary some advice about the verb mean:

When you want to say what something involves or what its result is, use the verb mean followed by the -ing form. Don’t use an infinitive:
✗ Being tolerant prejudiced means not to be prejuciced.
✓ Being tolerant means not being prejudiced.
 ✗ Reversing these changes would mean to challenge the power of the government.
✓ Reversing these changes would mean challenging the power of the government.
Use mean with an infinitive when you want to say that someone intends to do something:
They intend to pour cash into the health service, but they also mean to reform it.
In this sense, mean is often used in the passive:
Taking children into care is meant to be in the interests of the children, not the state.

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