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I am a bit unsure about putting a verb in the "ing" form when it follows "as well as". Can somebody please explain which one (A or B) is grammatically correct and which one sounds more natural?

A. He documented a number of processes and workflows as well as liaising between the development team and its internal clients.

B. He documented a number of processes and workflows as well as liaised between the development team and its internal clients.

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  • B sounds close. Try "He documented a number of processes and liaised between the teams as well".
    – VijayaRagavan
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 11:41
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    document ed -> liais ed; document ing -> liais ing
    – mplungjan
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 11:42
  • Even though second sentence sounded good to me, after some search I found out that ing form should be used after "as well as" (unless there is an infinitive in the first part, in this case bare infinitive in the second part is preferable). As well as breaking his arm, he hurt his leg I like to dance as well as sing
    – Vilmar
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 11:46
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    @Vilmar Please provide reference for your research. I suspect you are generalising inappropriately from an alleged 'rule'.
    – TrevorD
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 12:50

2 Answers 2

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Match the endings

A. He had been documenting a number of processes and workflows as well as liaising between the development team and its internal clients.

B. He documented a number of processes and workflows as well as liaised between the development team and its internal clients.

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  • Supplementing this answer: The subject of your second clause is the same as the first clause: "He documented ... [he] liaised ..."; He had been documenting ... [he had been] liaising ..."; NOT "He documented ... [he] liaising ...".
    – TrevorD
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 12:56
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    Basic Conjunction Reduction. Start with everything and delete repeated material recursively, but stop before you overcomplicate the syntax or underspecify the meaning.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 16:57
  • And how does my answer deserve a down vote?
    – mplungjan
    Commented Oct 18, 2013 at 17:16
  • It seems to me that you should be able to replace “as well as” with “and” – anything appropriate for the latter should be fine for the former, no?
    – B. Szonye
    Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 0:55
  • I do not agree. The and implies a ranking where the second thing was done later or not as important as the first. As well as indicates concurrency
    – mplungjan
    Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 5:23
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A is correct. Try inverting the clauses, and you can see that the sentence works equally well this way round:

'As well as liaising between the development team and its internal clients, he documented a number of processes and workflows.'

I cannot explain the grammar of this usage, but as a native English speaker and erstwhile professional sub-editor I know that A sounds idiomatic and B does not.

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