I am not sure whether is a rule governing the use of an infinitive instead of a gerund but I do know that the gerund is usually used to start a sentence and therefore becomes the subject of a sentence. For example: 'Borrowing the car today may be a good idea.' rather than "I suggest you 'borrowing' the car today.' Both are 'verb nouns' but the infinitive lends itself to better use within a sentence. Ultimately, though ,I find that the gerund and the infinitive are interchangeable depending on the usage and the skills of the writer.--Esther Yates, Esa Communications, Bangalore,India

I would suggest that the word "only" indicates a singular case. It is used to refer to a case of which there is only one. If there is more than one case, "few" is the appropriate term.

That is, in your example, "The Smiths are the only people I know who own a BMW", the word "only" refers to the Smiths as a single unit. You could replace "people" by "family" without changing the basic sense of the sentence--then the sentence "The Smiths are the only family I know..." could also be stated as "The Smiths are the ONE FAMILY I know..." The Smiths, therefore, form the single group of people you know who own (share the condition of owning) a BMW.

However, if you try to apply this process to "Mr. Smith is one of the only people I know..." you would see that it is redundant: you can't say "Mr. Smith is one of the one people I know..." But you could say either "Mr. Smith is the only person I know...," which means that nobody else you know owns a BMW, or "Mr. Smith is one of the few people I know...," which means that there are other people you know who own a BMW--or, to relate it more closely to the Smiths, you might say, "Mr. Smith belongs to the only family I know who owns a BMW."

The more I try to explain this clearly, the better I understand your dilemma! I don't know how clear this is, but another example that may help is the following sentence, given in the Collins English Dictionary: "The only men left in town were too old to bear arms". Again, "only" here places the men togather in a single group sharing the same condition.

You could say the only GROUP OF MEN left in town..." and rephrase it as "The ONE GROUP OF MEN left in town..." In this case, the men all belong to the group of "men left in town" and share the condition of being "too old to bear arms".

If you wanted to refer to one of these men, you might say, "Mr. X, one of the few men left in town, is too old to bear arms" or "Mr. X, who belongs to the only group of men left in town..." I hope this helps!--Melanie, Trinidad & Tobago, W.I.

I'm not sure if it's a matter of correctness. I would expect "opposite" to compare two buildings, e.g., "The building where my office is is opposite the library," and that the library would be prominent and recognizable. "Opposite" also suggests some significant distance between the two buildings, and likely that the buildings face each other.

"In front of" a building seems more appropriate for something other than another building: "The bus stop is in front of the library." In this respect, the idea of your office being "in front of the library" evokes the image of you out on the sidewalk, sitting at a desk!

Ultimately, the choice between "opposite" and "in front of" is a matter of clarity; which phrase will help the person to whom you're speaking locate your office?--Gerald, Decatur, IL