Oh my darling,

It happened on Monday.
Sad face.
And again on Thursday.
Sadder face.
And on Friday morning too.
The saddest face EVER.

What made me so weepy?
It was this…getting a well-written mail that was very well crafted and had the right style and tone, and it ended with this….

‘I look forward to hear from you!’

This is SUCH a common mistake. If I had a dollar every time I saw this, I’d be living on a private island off the coast of Eindhoven by now.

I wanted to deal with it here so that you will NEVER make this again and I can live a life full of joy.
OK?
OK!

First of all, let me tell you WHY it’s wrong.
After certain verbs in English, we have a prepositional object.
That is a preposition that is the OBJECT of the verb – the action- in the sentence. The ‘ing’ form of the word, which is actually called a ‘gerund’, is what’s needed here.

Sexy, right?
I KNOW!!!
GRAMMAR IS HOT!!!

Here are some examples:

He is interested IN LEARNING French.
She is fascinated BY LOOKING at the stars at night.
He admitted TO STEALING the book.
We were curious ABOUT HEARING the news.

‘In’, ‘by’, ‘to’ and ‘about’ are all prepositions.
The word after those prepositions is in the ‘ing’ form, as it’s the object of the verb in the sentence.

So…you can NOT say the following:

He is interested IN LEARN French.
She is fascinated BY LOOK at the stars at night,
He admitted TO STEAL the book.
We were curious ABOUT HEAR the news.

Those should all sound weird.
(If they sound normal to you, you need to hang out with smarter people.)

I hope the next time you end a mail in English, you’ll double check that you’re ending it correctly!

Got any questions?
Let me know!

I’m looking forward to HEARING from you!
I’m so curious about READING your mail.

With love!
X buffi