I notice in the sentence 'l'animal perdu s'est mis à dévaster les plantations, manger les fruits, et même boire le bandji' that the à is not repeated before the later infinitives. I thought repeating this preposition was usual - or is that only when it comes before nouns?
No repetition of 'à' ?
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Tom A. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
No repetition of 'à' ?
This question relates to:French writing exercise "Ahmed the elephant : an Ivory Coast story"
Asked 2 years ago
Hi Tom,
It is simply a stylistic tool to avoid repetition which can sound ungainly, particularly in written form.
Just as you might not repeat an auxiliary verb ( and a personal pronoun) in a sentence if the same auxiliary applies to the following verbs -
Elle a joué du piano et chanté = She played the piano and sang
Ils avaient été surprises mais rassurées par sa réaction = They had been surprised but ( they had been) reassured by his/her reaction
It is the same case here that à is superfluous.
Hope this helps!
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