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The difference between "having seen"," having to see", and "having seeing", in the sentences down below ?

Following is an excerpt from ' A Study in Scarlet'.

1- "from a drop of water,"said the writer,"a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other .

2- "from a drop of water,"said the writer,"a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having to see or having to hear of one or the other .

3- "from a drop of water,"said the writer,"a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seeing or hearing of one or the other.

Could you also,please explain-with examples-why the rest are incorrect.

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  • They can't all be excerpts from the book. You need to indicate which is the actual quote. Or if none is, and each is has changed something, you need to make that clear. Nov 28, 2018 at 14:26

1 Answer 1

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The preposition without is followed by either a noun or a gerund (a verb + ing ending) that's why there is having in all the sentences you've written.

  1. without having seen or heard of one or the other .

Here you can see the perfect gerund that refers to a time before that of the verb in the main clause. That means:

A logician hadn't seen or heard of neither the Atlantic or the Niagara before but he could infer the possibility from a drop of water.

One more example of the perfect gerund:

He denied having been married.

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

  1. without having to see or having to hear of one or the other

In this sentence having to is a gerund form of the modal verb have to do something (= need to do something). That means:

There was no need for a logician to see or to hear of neither the Atlantic or the Niagara to be able to infer the possibility from a drop of water.

One more example of the gerund of have to:

Having to wake up at 5 a.m. to be at work in time is very tiring.

That means you have to wake up at 5 a.m. not to be late at work and it's tiring.

  1. without having seeing or hearing of one or the other.

Never head of using the gerund after the verb have. This sentence might be grammatically incorrect.

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  • 1
    +1. The preposition without "is followed by" ...
    – TimR
    Nov 28, 2018 at 12:49

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