To add vs to be added

Friends,

what exactly is the difference between

There is something to add

and

There is something to be added

?

It would be great to hear 1) what do both sentences mean to a native speaker and 2) what are the grammar rules behind „to add“ and „to be added“.

I would consider the first example as an active adjectival infinitive and the second one as passive adjectival infinitive.

I often hear „to add“ from native speakers, but I think it should in this case always be „to be added“. This is - to my mind - because „to add“ could be extended to „which is to add“ (indication of future action) and would therefore require action that the object „something“ cannot perform in this case. „Something is added by a person“. Perhaps I‘m just confused…Help for dummies would be appreciated.

Solution 1:

The subtle difference I see is that "to be added" points out that something is missing, whereas "to add" is generally a prologue to doing the adding.

Solution 2:

Both are equally good. I think to add is probably more common.

The difference is whether the speaker/writer is focussing on whoever will add the material, or on the material itself. I see no objective difference.

You could regard the first as elliptic for

There is something for me/you/somebody to add.

without bothering to mention the actor.

Solution 3:

Although in most contexts either phrase is acceptable, in certain circumstances I think “to be added” is more appropriate.

Consider a hypothetical committee meeting drawing up a report to which several people are providing material:

Situation 1: The chair reads out the report but one of the committee notices that one of the contributions has been forgotten.

“There’s something to add to the report.”

works best because of brevity, although:

“There’s something to be added to the report.”

would be acceptable.

Situation 2: The chair reads out the report but one of the committee draws attention to the fact that they still need the contribution from X, who wasn’t able to attend and did not send a paper.

“There’s something to be added to the report.”

would, I think, be more suitable in this situation as it is clearer that the addition will happen in the not-immediate future.