Expert: Dan Smith - 10/3/2005

Question
I have to pick your brain on the grammatical aspect of the following sentence:

He inspired millions of people to better lives.

Is "better" here a verb or adjective? If it is an adjective, I assume then that "inspire ... to" can be followed by nouns. Am I correct.
Your response will be much appreciated. Thanks Dan.


Answer
This is actually not a very good sentence, and that is why you're struggling with it. But in this sentence, "better" is an adjective.

It would be a better sentence if it read in one of the following ways:

He inspired millions of people to live better (adjective) lives.

He inspired millions of people to better (verb--an infinitive construction, actually) their lives.

Yes, "inspire to" can be followed by a noun or a verb.

Hope this helps.