When trying to address someone in a professional manner when a potential meeting is coming up, you might be wondering how you should properly express this to them. The grammatically correct way to express this would be to say “I look forward to meeting you” and not “I look forward to meet you.”
Saying “I look forward to meet you” would be using the incorrect form of the verb “meet” in the sentence, leading to a confusing sentiment.
Why Is It Meeting Instead Of Meet?
When using the phrase “I look forward to meeting you,” you are expressing to the other person that the act of meeting them is going to take place in the future. In order to understand why the verb must then be used in this tense, we have to break down the parts of the sentence and go over some basic grammar rules.
Looking at the part of the sentence “look forward,” we know this means that we are anticipating something. The act of anticipating something inherently suggests that something is about to happen in the future. After that, we see the preposition to. However, this preposition is part of the phrase “look forward to.” If we were to remove the preposition, the term “look forward” would take on a different meaning.
This being said, the term “look forward to” forms what we call a phrasal verb. This is basically a verb that either comes together with a preposition or an adverb to form a combination of words that means something.
Usually, after a phrasal verb, there will be a noun. However, in this example, there is not; there is another verb – meet. Since this verb is following a phrasal verb that ends in a preposition, we need to consider this part of the sentence a gerund clause. This rule means that we must add -ing after the verb.
What Are Some Other Examples Of This Rule In A Sentence?
Some other sentences that follow the rule that governs the sentence “I look forward to meeting you” are:
I look forward to seeing you dance in your recital on Saturday.
I am going to be meeting him at the bar after I buy him his birthday present.
I look forward to hearing more about the girl you went on a date with a few nights ago.