should I use "maintain" or "maintaining"?

Question

In the sentence below:

Whether it is of more importance to maintain old friends for a person than it is to make new friends.

Is it correct to use "maintain" as considering "maintain" is part of the infinitive "to maintain", or to use "maintaining" by looking on the preceding "to" as a proposition?

Essentially, I guess I don't know how to distinguish "to" as a preposition or part of the infinitive.

Oliver Mason · Accepted Answer

The adjective important allows for two functions of a following to:

An infinitive, as in it is important to wash your hands; this expresses the 'theme' of what is important. This is often used in conjunction with it is at the beginning.
A noun group, as in it is important to my parents that I wash my hands; the noun group expresses the 'beneficiary' of the 'theme', which is a that-clause in this example.

In your example, the 'theme' is to maintain old friends, so it is clearly the first function: maintain is an infinitive form, so not part of a noun group, and the to is the infinitive marker, and not a preposition.

should I use "maintain" or "maintaining"?

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