I would not commit myself _____ that course of action.
- (a)of
- (b)to
- (c)by
- (d)with
Correct — B, to. 'Commit oneself' is followed by 'to' before the thing one is bound to, so the sentence reads 'I would not commit myself to that course of action', meaning the speaker refuses to be pledged to it.
- (a)of — There is no pattern 'commit oneself of'; 'of' does not mark what a person is pledged to.
- (c)by — 'By' marks the means or the agent, as in 'bound by an oath', so it would say how the speaker was committed rather than to what.
- (d)with — 'With' suggests accompaniment or an instrument and cannot introduce the course of action a person is pledged to.
A fixed-pattern item on the reflexive use 'commit oneself to something'.
'Commit' takes different patterns in its different senses, since you commit a crime, you commit a sum of money, and a court commits a person to prison. In the sense used here, that of binding yourself to a plan, the reflexive pronoun and 'to' travel together. The adjective keeps the pattern too, which is why 'committed to' is the everyday phrase.
- The verb also appears without a reflexive pronoun in the same sense, as in 'the party committed itself to the reform'.
- 'Committed to' is followed by a noun or an -ing form, as in 'committed to reducing costs', not by the base verb.
- Putting the base form of a verb after 'committed to' instead of the -ing form.
Asked as a fill-in-the-blank item that removes the fixed preposition from a reflexive verb pattern.
I would like <u>to avail</u> a fifteen days’ holiday this summer.
- (a) to avail of
- (b) to avail myself of
- (c) to avail myself
- (d) No improvement
Answer(b) to avail myself of
The same construction on another verb — a reflexive pronoun locked to one fixed preposition, so dropping either half breaks the sentence.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the preposition that fits — The company has committed itself _____ cutting emissions by half.
- (a)on
- (b)to
- (c)for
- (d)with
Answer(b) to — and the verb after it takes the -ing form.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the preposition that fits — He refused to commit himself _____ any particular date.
- (a)with
- (b)at
- (c)to
- (d)of
Answer(c) to — the reflexive verb keeps its fixed preposition.