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The first pair of these sentences with perfect participles, shows a reason while the second shows a time, and this is how the teacher taught me their meaning, so I want to know why one is reason and the other is time. How can I know that one describes reason and the other time? Please convince me.

He has failed four times already, he doesn't want to appear in the examination again. (Reason)

Having failed four times, he doesn't want to appear in the examination again. (Reason)

He has a lot of money in business, he doesn't want to risk his money any more. (Time)

Having lost a lot of money in business, he doesn't want to risk his money any more. (Time)

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  • 2
    Where are these examples from? (1) and (3) aren't even grammatically correct; they're comma splices.
    – alphabet
    May 7 at 19:20
  • Mega english book of modern English grammar
    – Shine
    May 7 at 20:47
  • 1
    I can't see much point in this time/reason analysis. Where is it supposed to lead the learner? I suspect it is unnecessary low-level grammatical formalism that has little application to understanding or sentence construction.
    – Anton
    May 7 at 21:41
  • @Shine You need to provide the full source/context, because these examples don't make any sense.
    – alphabet
    May 7 at 22:26

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I want to know why one is reason and the other is time.

I have no idea where that idea came from. They are both clauses of reason.

He has failed four times already, [and therefore] he doesn't want to appear in the examination again. (Reason)

Having failed four times, he [, therefore,] doesn't want to appear in the examination again. (Reason)

He has lost a lot of money in business, [and therefore] he doesn't want to risk his money any more. (Reason)

Having lost a lot of money in business, [he therefore] he doesn't want to risk his money any more. (Reason)

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  • He found no one in the house, he came back. Finding no one in the house , he came back ( reason or time)
    – Shine
    May 7 at 20:54
  • @Shine Can you explain why that would have anything to do with time?
    – Greybeard
    May 8 at 12:38

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