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As the boy tames the wild bird, it evokes pleasure in him away from his hardship in society; the bird is bettering us here.

verb gerund or present participle: bettering

improve on or surpass (an existing or previous level or achievement).

Bird (animal) substituting human failure: that is what it means.

Can this clause be reduced as the bird bettering us here and use a comma instead of a semi-colon.

Or is that wrong.

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  • I'm not sure what you mean by 'the bird is bettering us'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 16:47
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    @KateBunting I thinking "bettering" is being used to mean "make better" in the sense of improve, while its normal meaning is "surpass/exceed/outdo" (ie. "the bird is beating us")
    – user323578
    Commented Apr 13, 2019 at 21:19
  • The bird is bettering....? I don't think this is the right choice of word.
    – Ram Pillai
    Commented Sep 5, 2020 at 5:56

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The problem is that "X is bettering Y" tends to be taken to mean that X is scoring higher than Y in some competition. Attempting to use it to mean that X is causing Y to become better would not be the normal interpretation.

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By "bettering" it is meant that the presence of the bird is improving us. It does this by distracting the boy from his current hardships.

If you were to say "..the bird 'Betters' us" it might be similar but seems tortured and may not be understood

From Wiki; "A gerund is the present participle of a verb..."

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