3.151 commenting on suitability

You can say that someone or something would do a particular task better than anyone or anything else by using a 'to'-infinitive clause after a complement.

• He was absolutely the right man to go to Paris and negotiate.
• She may be an ideal person to look after the children.
• He is just the man to cool their reforming zeal.

The complement must be a noun group containing an adjective such as 'right', 'ideal', or 'best', or 'just the' followed by the noun 'person', 'man', or 'woman'. You cannot use adjectives as complements in constructions of this kind. For example, you can say, 'He was the ideal person to lead the expedition', but you cannot say, 'He was ideal to lead the expedition'.

Instead of a 'to'-infinitive clause, you can sometimes use a prepositional phrase beginning with 'for'. In this structure, an adjective can be used as the complement.

• He's not the right man for it.
• They are ideal for this job.