The record was to be played on a Saturday morning to a group of sales people.

[Torsten]

Hi,

Could you please take a look at this sentence:

The record was to be played on a Saturday morning to a group of sales people.

As I understand it, it's not clear whether the record was actually played or not. The sentence only says that somebody planned to play the record. Is that right?

Thanks,
Torsten
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Alan]

Hi Torsten,

To me it is clear that the record playing was planned but at the same time there is no real indication as to whether the plan was carried out. There is a hint in the 'was to be' construction that although that was the plan, it probably never materialised;. Otherwise there would be not much point in using the passive infinitive.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story The Name of the Game