Questions tagged [present-participles]
The Present Participle is a Verb used as an Adjective. It is formed by adding the suffix -ing to the infinitive form of the Verb.
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It is good of you to eat/be eating with us
To express gratitude to someone who is eating with my family right now, which one would I say?
It is good of you to eat with us.
It is good of you to be eating with us.
What if they've finished ...
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Participles vs Infinitives question on the old-model TOEFL test
I found a question like this while prepping for the TOEFL:
(A. Sprints) are equipped with starting blocks (B. to help) sprinters
to push away quickly and some equipment time (C. to record) (D.
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confusion of present participle
I apologize for asking the same question multiple times, but I’m still unclear about the different uses of the present participle. I would greatly appreciate your patience and understanding as I ...
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to call or to be calling (what's the differnce between 'to call' and 'to be calling'?)
It's not very nice to call teachers by the first name.
It's not very nice to be calling teachers by the first name.
What's the difference between them? The second one is grammatical? (The versions ...
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She knocked my glasses flying and they fell on the floor
She knocked my glasses flying and they fell on the floor.
What is the function of the word 'flying' here? Does it describe the subject 'she' or the object 'my glasses'? Is it functioning as a gerund ...
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We saw a burglar climb/ climbing our wall?
Which is the correct way to call and report the incident to 112 ?
We saw a burglar climb or climbing our wall?
We see a burglar climb or climbing our wall?
I found that either bare infinitive or ...
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Have + object + Bare Inf
I have a question about the difference between
My boss had me work hard.
and
My boss had me working hard.
Some linguists I talked to previously said that they both mean almost the same, but the ...
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Non finite verbs - bare infinitive and present participle
Choose the correct non finite verb. Consider the two examples
The inspector saw the robber escape/ escaping on a bicycle.
We hear the choir practise/ practising in the hall.
I think in the first ...
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what is the difference between "detail" and "detailing"?
I am an English language learner ,So please forgive me for some errors in expression.
I am confused about the noun meaning of "detail" and "detailing". These two words give me a ...
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Use of 'analyzing ' as participle or gerund
This is excerpt from a sentence in "Word power made easy by Norman lewis book" of session 1 page no.28.
"You are unable to realize that other people do not spend as much time and energy ...
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How to use a present participle as an adjective? Is "a boy coming from N.Y." correct?
"Tom is a boy who lives in N.Y.," can be rephrased as "Tom is a boy living in N.Y.," right?
What about this statement?
"Tom is a boy who comes from N.Y."
Can it be ...
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I'm happy returning home
I'm happy to return home.
I'm happy returning home.
What do sentences 1) and 2) mean?
a) Have I already returned home? Or,
b) Am I on my way back home? Or,
c) Will I return home soon?
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Is the present participle phrase correctly used to establish cause and effect relationship?
She brought fourteen children to term and lost four of them, leaving her with ten kids who ranged in age from Anne, who was twenty, to Billy and Jim, the sweet-eyed twins, who were six.
From Say ...
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Gerund POS classification [duplicate]
Following up on my previous question I am trying to find the proper parts of speech (POS) Tag for "Hiking interest rates" and "Cutting interest rates" in the context of the ...
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I want to know the meaning of "a sentence with present participle"?
There are many people wishing to visit the temple.
If I rephrase this sentence like :—
There are many people who wish to visit the temple.
Or,
There are many people who are wishing to visit the ...
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Is the "doing" in "I'm the first woman doing it" a gerund or participle?
For all the time everybody has been alive in this country, when they thought of the prime minister, they thought of a man in a suit. I’m the first woman doing it; I’m the first person not to be that ...
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usage of 'Having to'
A sentence from a high school textbook :
'Originally, matches on Boxing Day were played against local rivals to avoid teams and their fans having to travel long distances after Christmas Day.'
What is ...
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have someone come or coming?
In the following, should "come" or "coming" be used? If only "come" is correct, why?
The first sentence comes from a news story relating to the oldest dog in the world.
...
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Confused about the functions of the V+ING form
I found an Arabic sentence in a text about corporate social responsibility and I translated it as:
Shouldering corporate social responsibility results in increasing profits and eliminating disputes ...
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a sound like rats scrabbling on the other side of the wall
a sound like rats scrabbling on the other side of the wall
'scrabbling' is a present participle or gerund?
In the aspects of structural grammar, both forms are correct.
My question arises from the ...
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Is "sitting" a participle, gerund, or adjective in the sentence, "I saw him sitting."
I have having trouble explaining to someone why, in a past tense sentence, the second verb is sometimes in the present tense. Here is the sentence:
I saw him sitting.
I know the sentence is ...
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"Has the bus arrived yet"? [closed]
"Yet" could mean "so far/by now" and "now". But if say "Has the bus arrived yet"? Does here "yet" mean so far/by now or now?
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Should " beginning" be followed by "with"?
In unit 80 of 'Advanced Grammar in Use', it says
In formal English we can also introduce a reason in a clause beginning for, in that, or less commonly, inasmuch as.
Shouldn't there be a preposition ...
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Until + Present Perfect + Noun + Verb
A friend and I are having a quarrel about the sentence:
"For operational reasons I am not able to downgrade as requested.
For this reason we ask you to take it for a (dud) until I've the access ...
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Does "-ing" always tell us about duration?
I saw two sentences in one of threads:
(1) Having finished our work, we went home.
(2) After finishing our work, we went home.
I have a question which was perhaps already answered in that thread but I ...
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eventuality of <your passport being stolen> <stealing (of) your passport>
oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com:
(1) In the eventuality of your passport being stolen, contact the embassy at once.
My variants:
(2) In the eventuality of stealing your passport, contact the embassy at ...
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When "hover" on button... or When hovering on button...?
Consider this question on Stackoverflow:
How to show tooltip image when hover on button pyqt5?
According to the grammar in a Taiwanese textbook, after the word "when" comes 'verb+ing' (...
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Can I reduce a dependent clause to present participle clause when its tense is simple past?
Can I reduce this
1 He dropped a brick, which caused his toe to break.
to this
1 He dropped a brick, causing his toe to break.
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the present participle for two actions at the same time?
In order to add an '' ing '' after a comma in a sentence, the events in that sentence have to happen simultaneously? For example :
She dropped the gun, putting her hands in the air.
She dropped the ...
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What is 'crying' in 'She saw him crying.'
I am going through 'Infinitives' and 'Gerunds' on my own with the help of a grammar book written for Hindi speakers. The book focuses on common errors commited by Indian English-Speakers. There was an ...
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Relative clause and participle
I've never heard the following participial phrase, and it sounds unnatural to me:
Instead of
"There is no way that you are so tall."
one would write
"There is no way you being so ...
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Why are present participles used in this way? Do both passage convey the exact same meaning?
Extreme heat also depletes the oil’s additives sooner, altering
the oil’s chemistry and preventing it from lubricating, cooling
and protecting as designed."
This is the actual writing piece I ...
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Hanging on vs To hang on
[Error Correction ]
The right wall of my bedroom had nothing ( hanging on，except a clock) .
A. except a clock hanging
B. to be hanging on，except acloc k
C. to hang on，except a clock
D. except a ...
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Using passive voise
Using passive verb in this sentence:
The injured man couldn’t walk and had to .....
The correct ending of the sentence according to the textbook is "be carried"
That's the passive ...
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Should I use comma or not in "She left my room, smiling"?
Suppose a girl left my room and while leaving, she was smiling. Then which of the following should I use?
1. She left my room smiling.
Or
2. She left my room, smiling.
Should I use comma ? Actually ...
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Does present participle without comma always modifies preceding noun or noun phrase?
When reading the newspaper, I came across this sentence:
Then, Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) put out a detailed blog post
last week explaining how they believed Hermit was being used to target
...
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It made a pleasant change not having to work. (the identity of 'having')
It made a pleasant change not having to work.
What's the identity of 'having' here? Gerund or Present participle?
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relative pronouns, to infinitive, present participle. Are they interchangeable?
Armstrong was the first man who walked on the moon.
Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.
Armstrong was the first man walking on the moon.
Are they all the same? If not, what it the ...
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Only a few of them mention a block having specific shape
Myridon:
There is a large number of definitions of "block" here:
block - WordReference.com Dictionary of English
Only a few of them mention a block having specific shape.
Source: https://...
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is 'rolling' participle or adjective? [closed]
A rolling stone gathers no moss
Here is "rolling" an adjective or a present participle?
If it is both, which one is more accurate? If you have to choose one, which one would you choose? ...
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What is the function of 'having seen' in this sentence?
I am reading my text Why Do Friendships End? by Allison Hunter, there is a sentence confused me.
She referred to having seen the question in one of my articles,
Mystery of Friendship.
I don't know ...
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The vanishing glass vs The vanished glass
I was reading a grammar book by M. Swan about present and past participle that are used as adjectives when I came across this example: a vanished civilization. In his book Oxford Grammar, he explains ...
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Do these sentences mean the same: "I sat watching the rain" vs "I sat while I was watching the rain."
1- I sat watching the rain.
2- I sat while I was watching the rain.
In the beginning, I thought the two sentences were the same, 1st one being a shortened form the 2nd one.
However, after I learnt ...
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is it correct that Present participle phrase could be considered to be a sentence?
is "Buying kitchen chairs and eating in restaurants and carrying on" a complete sentence?
I think this sentence separated by common isn't a competition for sentence. but I often see this ...
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V-ing as noun modifier
Just about anyone living in the area at that time is at risk. （From CGEL, 2002, p. 162）
I understand it's equivalent to
Just about anyone who lived in the area at that time is at risk.
I wrote a ...
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What are complete sentences of elliptic phrases such as "Or being lied about..."?
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
Is the following their ...
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that running boy
a. Stop that running boy!
b. Stop that boy running!
You see a young boy running towards a street and you think he is going to try and cross it and put his life in danger. You shout to other people to ...
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Participle or Gerund when prepositions are present? [duplicate]
a) After having the meal, she went shopping.
b) On being told the party was cancelled, the girl burst into tears.
c) While walking along the street, Sandy answered.
Please, advise whether the ing-...
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Can we use participle clauses as adverbial modifiers?
Most of the time, participle clauses are used in sentences like the ones that I have written below (all of which feature present participles):
[1] Walking the dog, she breathed the fresh air.
[2] He ...
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participial construction: the driver dying instantly
Is the boldfaced participial construction used properly? If not, why?
The car crashed into the building, the driver dying instantly.
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