passive purpose

[navi]

Which are correct:

1-The man was taken to a hotel for him not to get into fights with his neighbours.
2-The man was taken to a hotel in order not to get into fights with his neighbours.
3-The man was taken to a hotel to not get into fights with his neighbours.

4-The man was taken to a hotel for him to avoid having to deal with journalists.
5-The man was taken to a hotel to avoid having to deal with journalists.

[Marius Hancu]

All correct, but do you really have some prescriptions to favor the lesser-used ones?:-)

At Google Books:

62 on "to avoid getting into fights" (flows much better these days)
1 on "in order not to get into fights"
0 on "for him not to get into fights"

[rogual]

None of them sound very natural in my opinion. I'd say:

The man was taken to a hotel so he wouldn't get into fights with his neighbours.

and

The man was taken to a hotel so he wouldn't have to deal with journalists.

[Marius Hancu]

Good advice.

[Rusty]

I am wondering what "was taken" implies.
Maybe it means:
The man was taken to a hotel to prevent him from getting into fights with his neighbours.

[navi]

Thanks a lot Marius, Rogual and Rusty.


"I am wondering what "was taken" implies.
Maybe it means:
The man was taken to a hotel to prevent him from getting into fights with his neighbours."

I think 'to prevent implies that he wants to, or has a tendency to get into fights with his neighbours. To me, it seems that in the original sentences it is not clear whether he wants to avoid those fights or not. It could have that meaning, but maybe another scenario is possible.

He wanted to avoid getting into fights with his drug-dealing neighbours againts whom he was going to testify. He talked about that to the police and the police took him to a hotel ....

[Rusty]

Thanks a lot Marius, Rogual and Rusty.


"I am wondering what "was taken" implies.
Maybe it means:
The man was taken to a hotel to prevent him from getting into fights with his neighbours."

I think 'to prevent implies that he wants to, or has a tendency to get into fights with his neighbours. To me, it seems that in the original sentences it is not clear whether he wants to avoid those fights or not. It could have that meaning, but maybe another scenario is possible.

He wanted to avoid getting into fights with his drug-dealing neighbours againts whom he was going to testify. He talked about that to the police and the police took him to a hotel ....
The police were helping him. He was being taken willingly.
The man was taken to the hotel to protect him from fights with his neighbours.

[navi]

The police were helping him. He was being taken willingly.
The man was taken to the hotel to protect him from fights with his neighbours.

Thanks a lot Rusty.

Your sentence does sound a lot more natural than mine, but I wanted to see if the subject of the infinitive in the purpose clause, could be the same as the subject of the sentence (as opposed to the agent of the verb) in a passive sentence. In your sentences the implied subject of the infinitive ('to protect') is 'the police'. In other words it is the same as the agent of the verb 'take'.

2-The man was taken to a hotel in order not to get into fights with his neighbours.
3-The man was taken to a hotel to not get into fights with his neighbours.
5-The man was taken to a hotel to avoid having to deal with journalists.
Here the subject of the infinitive ('not to get', 'to avoid') is 'the man'.
I agree that these sentences don't really sound natural, but do you find them incorrect?