No repetition of 'à' ?

Question

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?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

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!

Tom Adair · Answer

Thank you Cécile :)