3

I made up the following sentences. Which version is correct?

  1. I prefer being by myself and not depend on others.
  2. I prefer being by myself and don't depend on others.
  3. I prefer being by myself and not depending on others.

The first version looks to me a nice version to hear it. But negation of the verb seems to me wrong.

The senond one looks pretty grammatical.Due to we negate a verb with auxiliary verb do

The third one uses gerund. It doesn't nice to hear. But it make sense because it combines the sentence in a good structure: Subject+Verb(Gerund + Gerund)

Improve this question
2
  • 2
    You should use the adjective "dependent", as in " I prefer being by myself and not dependent on others".
    – BillJ
    Jul 20, 2017 at 8:03
  • @BillJ That is felicitous, but the author seems to tell us that he wants to use the gerund-participle, and to negate it.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Jul 20, 2017 at 8:20

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The first sentence is wrong because "not" can't modify the following "depend". The second and third sentences are grammatically correct but have slightly different meaning.

Sentence 2 describes what I do (I don't depend on others) while sentence 3 describes what I prefer (I prefer not depending on others).

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

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