<p>The famous filmmaker (had a tendency) (of changing) his recollections, perhaps (out of boredom) (at having) to tell interviewers the same story.</p>
<p>Is the proper wording always "a tendency to ...." instead of "a tendency of ..ing"?</p>
<p>(at having)</p>
<p>Should be “for having” or “from having”.</p>
<p>The famous filmmaker had a tendency of changing his recollections, perhaps out of boredom for having to tell interviewers the same story.</p>
<p>That’s what I think.</p>
<p>…umm scratch that.</p>
<p>Apparently it’s A and you’re right.</p>
<p>Apparently.</p>
<p>“tendency to” is the correct form; “tendency” takes an infinitive complement. See [Gerunds</a> and Infinitives: Their Noun Roles](<a href=“http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/Grammar/gerunds.htm]Gerunds”>http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/Grammar/gerunds.htm).</p>
<p>It is always “a tendency to…”; “tendency” always takes an infinitive complement.</p>
<p>^ That is oddly similar to my response.</p>
<p>Maybe purple potato is silver turtle’s little/older brother. </p>
<p>The user IDs are similar (favorite color + random object).</p>
<p>lolol.</p>
<p>Or maybe our replies were generated by a time-based algorithm that makes a structural or semantic change every twelve seconds.</p>
<p>“Tendency of” should be “tendency to” because “tendency” is always complemented by an infinitive.</p>
<p>wait…</p>
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<p>Good point.</p>
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<p>That’s an intriguing possibility…</p>
<p>^ Indeed. I’ll mull it over and share some more thoughts on it tomorrow.</p>
<p>what’s the answer to the question then? When I read it over I though there was no error.</p>
<p>does it have to be tendency to…can’t tendency of work?</p>
<p>How would you know if the answer is A or B? That is, the “to” comes after “tendency,” so it could be at the end of choice A or the beginning of choice B. How do you know which one to pick?</p>
<p>^Infinitives are required for tendency because it’s an abstract noun (I think that’s what silverturtle told me awhile ago). </p>
<p>So… tendency is not the wrong answer, but “of changing”</p>
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<p>You have to fix the grammatical error without changing the intended meaning of the sentence.</p>