0

Is there any difference between these two sentences?

  1. She entered his room without him knowing.

  2. She entered his room without making him know.

Please explain the meaning of these two sentences.

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The first sentence is correct and means that he was not aware that she had entered the room. (You will also see such sentences written as: ....without his knowing..., which has the same meaning.)

The second sentence is awkward. I think it is trying to say that she entered the room without letting him know. That is to say, without informing him. This means something quite different.

It is also ambiguous. The question is: know about what? It might mean that she did not let him know that she had entered the room. Alternatively, it might mean refer to something else that she kept to herself, rather than informing him. You would need to know the context in order to be sure of the meaning.

Improve this answer
2
  • Is there any difference between 'without him knowing' and 'without his knowing' ? I think in first one 'knowing' is used as participle and in second one 'knowing' is used as gerund. So in the second one we can use 'knowledge' rather than 'knowing'. Am I correct?
    – Sahil Laskar
    Aug 21, 2022 at 15:46
  • I refer you to BillJ's recent answer on this subject: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/261701/a-gerund-or-a-participle
    – Ronald Sole
    Aug 21, 2022 at 22:15

You must log in to answer this question.

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