8
votes
Should "gerund + objective" be modified by adjectives or adverbs?
Form versus Function
This is a perennial confusion, one deriving in part from different sources using the word “gerund” in conflicting and contradictory ways, some of which are based in older ...
- 133k
7
votes
"I hate Jill singing those songs." = "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs."?
I would interpret them differently.
"I hate Jill singing those songs" implies that you hate her actions (singing) when she sings those songs.
Whereas "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs" ...
- 134
7
votes
"I have you returning the car."
Yes, we have such a structure, and yes, it is grammatically sound. It is not causative.
Non-finite verb clauses with oblique subjects
I have you returning the car on August 14th here at the ...
- 133k
6
votes
Should "gerund + objective" be modified by adjectives or adverbs?
To supplement the excellent answer from tchrist, I'll answer your question:
For example, is it OK to say "With my persistent broadening the horizon of my knowledge of cosmology, my interest in it ...
- 17.2k
6
votes
Can I use "has" after being a noun?
Being a celebrity has both some advantages and some disadvantages.
The Subject of this sentence is the clause being a celebrity. Clauses functioning as Subject take singular verb agreement. It doesn'...
- 44.4k
6
votes
Accepted
"He had me do this" vs "He had me doing this" vs "He had my doing this"
Those are three different problems.
"He had me do this” vs “He had my doing this”
The former is correct. The latter is nonsensical.
He said me being here was wonderful.
Yes, ...
- 20.2k
6
votes
In "Nobody was surprised at John being absent", is "being" a present participle modifying "John" or a gerund whose subject is "John"?
In traditional grammar the verb being would be considered a gerund in the Original Poster's example. The reason for this is that the clause it heads (John being absent) is the complement of a ...
- 44.4k
6
votes
Accepted
Gerund vs Participle
Yes, I agree with your assessment. The sentence "To drink heavily and taking too many drugs are bad for your health" lacks parallelism as written. The obvious way of fixing this would be to ...
- 298
5
votes
Accepted
What is the grammatical role of *your* in "... by your being ..." phrases?
The subordinate clause
your being well cared for
is the object of the preposition by.
That makes it a noun clause, i.e, a clause that acts as a noun.
Here's an elaboration of what I said about noun ...
- 107k
5
votes
Another tricky subject-verb agreement question (for me)
May I suggest you try and make up some sentences using gerund clauses as subjects?
Here is an example:
Explaining things repeatedly is frustrating. For example.
Now: Explaining things repeatedly and ...
- 13.5k
4
votes
"I hate Jill singing those songs." = "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs."?
"I hate Jill singing those songs" could only be interpreted as meaning something like "I hate it when Jill sings those songs", "I hate that Jill sings those songs", or ""I hate Jill's singing those ...
- 79.2k
4
votes
English Poetry Question
If “gerund” means “using a non-finite verb clause where the grammar requires a noun phrase”, then sure, since the verb phrase headed by talking is being used as an object. So we know that as a ...
- 133k
4
votes
(Noun) being (noun) verb ... AND With (noun) being (noun), ...?
a) English not being my first language does negatively affect my productivity.
b) With my first language not being English, my productivity is negatively affected.
(I've taken the liberty of changing ...
- 107k
4
votes
What’s the underlying grammar behind starting off a ɢᴇʀᴜɴᴅ clause with an ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛ pronoun?
This sentence:
This is because many students think that all of their sentences
need to be complex and them not understanding what a complex sentence
is.
is apt to provoke grammati...
- 133k
4
votes
Why is there no article before "key" in "key amongst them being ..."?
Key here is an adjective not a noun, meaning important or crucial in achieving something.
Example: "When it comes to learning a new language, practice is key"
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3
votes
"I hate Jill singing those songs." = "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs."?
In typical use, you can rule out this interpretation. Reading Jill singing those songs as a noun phrase is much more natural than reading it as Jill (when she is) singing those songs.
On reading or ...
- 21.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Grammatical correctness of the following sentence
“What grammar is this now?”
That grammatical analysis you’ve asked for follows. It’s a clunky sentence, but its parse is not a great mystery. Given:
There are a number of causes of people not doing ...
- 133k
3
votes
Accepted
Using gerund: "applying" or "on applying"?
"PREP applying s to the coefficients of the polynomials defining our
variety X, we obtain a new variety sX".
(a) PREP = By
This highlights the actual method used, emphasising this and to some ...
- 79.9k
3
votes
Accepted
When and why can you omit “when” (or other conjunctions or prepositions) before a gerund clause that’s used adverbially?
The additional words you are using all add meaning to the sentence.
'When' indicates a there was a specific time in the past (although it is not specified).
'While' indicates it occurred during the ...
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3
votes
(Noun) being (noun) verb ... AND With (noun) being (noun), ...?
Both of your examples seem to be grammatically correct. However, the use of "does" in the first example makes it very emphatic. In normal circumstances, I'd probably just say: "English not being my ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Does a verbal noun turn back into a verb when modified by an adverb?
In your second example, the object of the verb like is the
gerund clause singing loudly, which serves as the NP object of the
verb here. The head of that
clause is the verb singing as modified ...
- 133k
3
votes
Accepted
Verb + Subject + present participle or Verb + possessive + present participle?
They are both correct.
I can't imagine you using a dictionary
This means that I cannot imagine you in a scenario where you are using a dictionary.
I can't imagine your using a dictionary
This ...
3
votes
Noun + Gerund Structure Differences
The main difficulty results directly from your terminology, which as far as I can tell, is an unusual* one that is leading to paradoxes and misunderstanding. You appear to be using the term “gerund” ...
- 133k
3
votes
Adverb position(by deliberately doing.....)
The position of deliberately is not determined by the preposition by, but by the verb doing which happens to be in the gerund. Adverbs of manner, like deliberately is, can go before the verb. They
...
- 32k
3
votes
Adverb position(by deliberately doing.....)
Adverbs can go in a number of positions, but here it's not by which is moving the adverb, but the particular use of doing.
He annoys me by behaving badly.
He annoys me by doing that deliberately.
He ...
- 100k
3
votes
Understanding something vs. understanding 'of' something?
I thought this was an interesting question, so spent some time digging. It is worth browsing the ngram usages here. The goal is not so much to look at the frequency but at the actual usages. For ...
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2
votes
Accepted
In "Nobody was surprised at John being absent", is "being" a present participle modifying "John" or a gerund whose subject is "John"?
It's a gerund. A gerund functions as a noun. A noun is a thing. "John being absent" is a thing. It is the thing that nobody was surprised at.
It's not functioning as a participle. A ...
- 10.4k
2
votes
Accepted
preposition + genitive vs non-genitive subjects + gerund
Where a gerund-participle clause is complement to a preposition, both genitive and non-genitive subjects are possible:
I have no objections to [their/them taking notes].
She insisted on [my/me being ...
- 12k
2
votes
Controversy over subject-verb agreement in this sentence
If We were asked to make the sentence in the post complex the sentece would read something like this.
That women are driving cars is, of course, such a foreign sight to a society like Saudi Arabia.
...
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2
votes
Controversy over subject-verb agreement in this sentence
I'd say that Women driving cars is probably a noun phrase with "women" as head and "driving cars" as a gerund-participial post-head modifier. Noun phrases with plural head nouns take plural agreement, ...
- 12k
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