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I have read in http://www.grammaring.com/the-forms-of-the-gerund about perfect gerunds. There are two kind of usage in the website,one about "being" and other about "having". The website describes about them as follows:

The perfect gerund refers to a time before that of the verb in the main clause . However, it is only used if the time of the action expressed by the gerund is not obvious from the context: He denied being married. (the simple gerund being refers to the same time as denied: He denied that he was married.)

He denied having been married. (the perfect gerund having been refers to a time before denied: He denied that he had been married.)

My question: What's the difference in the meaning between these two sentences? I don't quite understand the definition of this website.

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  • You left a whole bunch of explanation above and below the part you quote.
    – Alan Carmack
    Oct 28, 2016 at 14:23
  • @Alan carmak Which answer ?
    – yubraj
    Oct 28, 2016 at 14:41
  • I meant your question, and I've done it for you. You need to make clear what text you quote from another website. Your use of a colon does not do that.
    – Alan Carmack
    Oct 28, 2016 at 14:41

3 Answers 3

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1) He denied being married. = The past tense of: He denied being married at the time (moment) he denied it.

2)One can also say: He denies [in the present] having been married [at an undefined time in the past].The past tense of the preceding sentence is:

3) He denied having been married = He denied [at a particular moment in time] being married at some undefined time in the past BEFORE the time of denial.

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Consider a divorced man. He was married, but is not married now.

He denies being married.

Here, he's telling the truth. At the time of his denial, he is not in the state of marriage.

He denies having been married.

Here, he's lying. Even though he is not married now, he has been married before. He still possesses some result from his marriage. He still has his former marriage in his history.

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He denies being married.

He is saying he is not married now.

He denies having been married.

He is saying at some time in the past (it could be a single point in time in the past or a range of time in the past), he was not married. He may or may not be married now.

It also can kinda-sorta mean the same as the first sentence if the marriage (would have) happened a very long time ago, though that is more likely to be expressed He denies ever having been married.

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