Page 292 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

infinitives (7): after nouns and pronouns 285
This structure is also common with first, second, third etc, next, last and only. Who was the first person to climb Everest without oxygen?
The next to arrive was Mrs Patterson.
She's the only scientist to have won three Nobel prizes.
This structure is only possible when the noun with the superlative has a subject relationship with the infinitive.
Is this the first time that you have stayed here?
(NOT ••• thefirat timef61'}'61:t t6 amy heYe. Time is not the subject ofstay.)
4 easy to please
Some adjectives can be used with infinitives in a special structure, in which the subject of the clause is really the object of the infinitive. Examples are easy, hard, difficult, impossible, good, ready, and adjectives after enough and too.
He's easy to please.
(= To please him is easy. OR It is easy to please him.)
Japanese is difficUlt for Europeans to learn.
(= It is difficult for Europeans to learn Japanese.) His theory is impossible to understand.
(= It is impossible to understand his theory.)
Are these berries good to eat? The apples were ripe enough to pick.
The letters are ready to sign. The box was too heavy to lift. The structure often ends with a preposition (see 452).
She's nice to talk to. He's very easy to get on with.
It's not a bad place to live in.
There is no object pronoun after the infinitive or preposition in these cases. Cricket is not very interesting to watch. (NOT CrieIee, is n6' very interesting t6
WlSten it.)
She's nice to talk to. (NOT She's nice t6 talk t6 heY.)
When the adjective is before a noun, the infinitive is usually after the noun. It's a good wine to keep. (NOT }fa tt g66ti t6 ~ Mne.)
Easy, difficult and impossible cannot be used in this structure when the subject of the clause is the subject of the following verb.
She has difficulty learning maths. (NOT She is tiiJJietdt t6 lettrn matns.) Iron rusts easily. (NOT l1'fm is et1:Sy t6 1"!t3t.)
This material can't possibly catch fire. (NOT This I1tttterittl is imp6ssible t6
eaten fire.)
For more about enough/too + adjective + Infinitive, see 187, 595.
For so + adjective + infinitive (e.g. Would you be so kind as to help mel'), see 538.8.
For information about the structures that are possible with a particular adjective, see a good dictionary.
285 infinitives (7): after nouns and pronouns 1 nouns related to verbs: no wish to change
We can use infinitives after some nouns which are related to verbs that can be followed by infinitives (e.g. wish, decide, need).
I have no wish to change. (= I do not wish to change.)
I told her about my decision to leave. (= I told her that I had decided to
leave.)
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