a scentence correction - review of studies

zoe wrote:see all the options, here is a point :
fail in doing, fail to do

is here anyone know the difference ?

thanks a lot

have a nice day
^_^

fail to do: This means that someone did not do something. If a sentence says that studies failed to control for certain variables, generally the understanding is that the studies did not control for the variables either because no attempt was made to control for the variables or because and attempt was made but the attempt was unsuccessful. The central point of failed to do is that something did not get done.

failed in something: This is slightly different from failed to in that failed in always implies that an attempt was made and that that attempt was unsuccessful. Here's an example. Scientist failed in their attempt to control for other variables. That sentence means that they attempted to control for the other variables, but they did not succeed.

Further, the expression in the question above, fail in controlling, does not sound idiomatically correct to me. I believe the idiomatically correct forms are one of the two following forms.

failed to control

failed in their attempts to control (This is one of multiple idiomatically correct ways to use failed in.)

So

failed to do: Something did not get done, either because there was no effort was made to do it or because any efforts to do it were unsuccessful.

failed in: An effort was made to do something and that effort was not successful.

In the SC question above, failed to is better for two reasons, because the sentence is making the point that since the studies did not do something, regardless of why, none could be taken seriously, and because failed in controlling is not idiomatically correct.

Marty Murray wrote:

zoe wrote:see all the options, here is a point :
fail in doing, fail to do

is here anyone know the difference ?

thanks a lot

have a nice day
^_^

fail to do: This means that someone did not do something. If a sentence says that studies failed to control for certain variables, generally the understanding is that the studies did not control for the variables either because no attempt was made to control for the variables or because and attempt was made but the attempt was unsuccessful. The central point of failed to do is that something did not get done.

failed in something: This is slightly different from failed to in that failed in always implies that an attempt was made and that that attempt was unsuccessful. Here's an example. Scientist failed in their attempt to control for other variables. That sentence means that they attempted to control for the other variables, but they did not succeed.

Further, the expression in the question above, fail in controlling, does not sound idiomatically correct to me. I believe the idiomatically correct forms are one of the two following forms.

failed to control

failed in their attempts to control (This is one of multiple idiomatically correct ways to use failed in.)

So

failed to do: Something did not get done, either because there was no effort was made to do it or because any efforts to do it were unsuccessful.

failed in: An effort was made to do something and that effort was not successful.

In the SC question above, failed to is better for two reasons, because the sentence is making the point that since the studies did not do something, regardless of why, none could be taken seriously, and because failed in controlling is not idiomatically correct.

Thanks so much.
I got it.
BTW, can I say fail in doing something?

^_^

zoe wrote:BTW, can I say fail in doing something?

^_^

While there may be some situation in which that construction would work, really it is not idiomatically correct.

Marty Murray wrote:

zoe wrote:BTW, can I say fail in doing something?

^_^

While there may be some situation in which that construction would work, really it is not idiomatically correct.

thanks Marty

It's great helpful!
Have a nice day.