admit lying or admit to lying?

[sungstar]

I'm not sure which is correct. Are they both correct?

He admitted lying to his wife.
He admitted to lying to his wife.

 

[lazie jaye]

The second is grammatically correct. However, people often say the first one too in daily conversation.

I would say however...

"He admitted that he lied to his wife."

 

[94kittycat]

I don't think that any of the two sentaces is wrong, but I'm pretty sure that, "he admitted to lying to his wife," is the one that's more official.

 

[drei_lengua]

The second is grammatically correct. However, people often say the first one too in daily conversation.

I would say however...

"He admitted that he lied to his wife."

This is a good sentence because it avoids having to repeat "to" in the same sentence. Another example is "I know that that man is a teacher." Having the same word repeat in the same sentence can usually be avoided by reconstructing the sentence as Lazie Jaye did.

Drei

 

[sevengem]

So, "admit to doing...' is more formal than "admit doing...". That's all. Right?