0

I've read that 'having+past participle' is used in the perfect participle. Now I'm confused to have found the following sentences written in a grammar book(which isn't available in internet) and in this website http://www.myenglishteacher.net/gerunds.html as gerunds. Which calls it as perfect gerund. The sentences are:

  1. I heard of his having won a prize.
  2. The mirror showed no prints of having been touched.
  3. She was accused of having stolen my bag.

My questions:

  1. How are these sentences with 'having+p.p' uses of the gerund?
  2. Could you please tell me how to use 'having+p.p' as gerunds in sentences with examples?
0

1 Answer 1

1

I have won a prize.

This is win in the present perfect sense.

  • Present perfect sense: It means you won a prize in the past, then X, then now. X is not specified here and is not required to be specified.

    • Reasons for X not being specified include emphasis that something's in the past, communicating that something happened outside of the recent past, communicating that a state change is completed and not in progress, and expecting X to be filled in from context.

    • A possible fill-in for X is "the contest ended" or "I actually received the prize."

I heard about him having won a prize.

This is kinda-sorta win in the present perfect sense in gerund forum. It means he has won a prize, but it's converted to a gerund form so it can be an object of a preposition.

I'm sure I made someone with higher rep than me angry at saying that gerunds can have perfect forms. I don't really think gerunds can actually have perfect tenses - because A) they aren't even pure verbs and B) it doesn't work at all with past perfect.

What I think is really going on is something like this:

I am having lunch now.

I am having my nails done.

I am having my car repaired.

A meaning of have is "to take in" or "to receive or undergo an action."

I am having my clothes tailored = I'm receiving the action of "clothes tailored" from someone.

So:

I heard about him having won a prize = I heard about him having undergone the action of "win a prize."

I haven't been there in two years ... I wanted to know about him not having been there in two years = I wanted to know about him not having undergone the action of "being there".

2
  • 1
    I haven't got you yet, I don't know why you are using 'x' mark in your answer, I don't find it helpfull at all.
    – yubraj
    Commented Oct 3, 2016 at 16:44
  • could you please make it understandable for me?
    – yubraj
    Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 11:59

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .