Adjective Complements: Easy to Please or Eager to Please?
By the end: I can identify who performs or receives an action in adjective-plus-infinitive patterns and preserve those roles when reformulating.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Choose a short recording.
Before you start
Compare Lina is easy to please with Lina is eager to please. Who does the pleasing in each reading?
Useful background: Infinitives, subject/object roles and the passive distinction.
The subject can be the person affected
In a pattern such as Lina is easy to please, someone finds pleasing Lina easy. The sentence does not normally mean that Lina finds it easy to please others. A missing object role in the infinitive links back to Lina.
Lina is easy to please.
This handle is difficult to turn.
The subject can perform the infinitive action
With adjectives such as eager or ready, the subject can be the person preparing or wanting to perform the action. Check the adjective’s meaning rather than copying the interpretation from easy.
Lina is eager to please the visitors.
The guide is ready to answer questions.
Preserve roles when expanding or shortening
A fuller clause can make the understood relationship explicit. Avoid adding an object pronoun where the easy-type construction already connects a gap to its subject. Other adjective patterns have their own meanings and complements.
This text is easy for beginners to follow.
It is easy for beginners to follow this text.
Name the reader without repeating the object
Beginners perform the following; this text is its object.
The subject supplies the understood object of follow. Do not add it after follow in this pattern.
Guided practice
Say or write your answer first. Compare the meaning and form; the model is one possible answer.
1. Explain the roles in Sam is difficult to persuade.
Compare a model and explanation
Someone finds persuading Sam difficult; Sam is the person to be persuaded.
The subject links to the object role of persuade.
2. Explain the roles in Sam is eager to persuade the group.
Compare a model and explanation
Sam wants to perform the persuading, and the group is its intended recipient.
Eager introduces a different relationship from difficult.
3. Expand This form is easy to complete with an explicit person completing it.
Compare a model and explanation
It is easy for a new member to complete this form.
The form remains the object of complete.
4. Shorten It is difficult for beginners to follow this explanation.
Compare a model and explanation
This explanation is difficult for beginners to follow.
Beginners perform following; the explanation is followed.
5. Repair the duplicated object in the target pattern: This book is easy to read it.
Compare a model and explanation
This book is easy to read.
The subject already corresponds to the infinitive’s understood object.
6. Choose a paraphrase preserving The visitors are ready to guide us.
Compare a model and explanation
The visitors are prepared to perform the guiding.
Ready links the subject with the infinitive’s actor, unlike easy to guide.
7. Read the workshop note. Explain why Noor is easy to help would not preserve Noor is eager to help the guests.
Compare a model and explanation
The first describes Noor as the recipient of help; the second describes Noor as willing to help others.
The shared adjective-plus-infinitive shape hides a role difference.
8. Write a pair using the same person as easy to guide and ready to guide, then explain the difference.
Compare a model and explanation
Alex is easy to guide: guiding Alex is straightforward. Alex is ready to guide: Alex is prepared to guide others.
Choose context and an explicit object where helpful to make the contrast clear.
A short conversation
Listen first if you can, then open the transcript when useful.
Open the conversation transcript
A: Is Noor easy to please, or eager to please?
B: In this situation she’s eager to please the guests. She’s the one preparing everything.
A: And are the guests difficult to satisfy?
B: No. They’re easy to please. A clear explanation and a friendly welcome are enough for this fictional visit.
Listening checks
Listen to each extract or open its transcript. These three questions have their own score.
Mastery quiz
Choose the best answer in each situation. Your score is out of eight.
Use it in your own words
Speaking task 1
Explain the workshop note using both adjective patterns, then expand them into full clauses.
Reveal a possible response
Noor is eager to help the guests: she wants to assist them. The guests are easy to please: it is straightforward to satisfy them. The booklet is easy for newcomers to follow, although explaining the final task takes preparation.
Success check: Preserve actors and recipients across the compact and expanded versions.
Speaking task 2
Describe a fictional task and two people, using difficult to, ready to and eager to without confusing their roles.
Reveal a possible response
The old handle is difficult to turn. Maya is ready to replace it, and Noor is eager to help her.
Success check: Identify what receives an action and who performs each action.
Speaking task 3
Repair a misleading paraphrase and explain why it matters.
Reveal a possible response
Changing Noor is eager to help to Noor is easy to help changes her from a willing helper into the person receiving assistance. The words look similar, but the relationship is different.
Success check: Explain the exact role change rather than merely calling a sentence wrong.
Take it with you
I can identify who performs or receives an action in adjective-plus-infinitive patterns and preserve those roles when reformulating.