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I read the following while waiting at the bus stop.
It is against the law to smoke in this bus shelter.
Can we replace the infinitive with the gerund without any change in the meaning?
It is against the law smoking in this bus shelter.
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edited
No, because if you do that you get:
it is against the law smoking
What is against the law smoking?
that makes no sense because 'illegal smoking' becomes the complement of 'it is'.
whereas really those are the things you are equating. Then smoking is the subject.
Smoking is against the law
But, with a dummy subject:
It is illegal to smoke here.
It is against the law to smoke here.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Thanks
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