By Gerunds, Past tenses

Note that 'used to' as in 'accustomed to' in the simple past tense takes the infinitive, e.g. "I used to work hard." 'Used' as in 'utilised' can also take the gerund, if you write 'for' instead of 'to', e.g. "Soil is used for making earthen pots".

Correct, but the reason is grammatical. 'In preference to' is prepostional and takes a noun (gerund) object. It has nothing to do with the occurrence of the abolition. And check your commas-- there should be two or none.

Miriam, Many thanks for your thoughtful expansion of Pem's analysis. I'll first address the specific questions you've raised, then re-state more thoroughly the case which the Cambridge book is making for the gerund's redefinition. Consider the following two sentences: 1. I can't stand your...

rommie? Got a theory? hehe Sure thing. Consider the sentence: "I had him eating spinach". Does that make sense to you? It makes sense to me. It means (1) "he was eating spinach", and (2) "I caused this to happen". The phrase "him eating spinach" is a gerund - quite a complicated gerund as it...

The city is polluted. ( simple present tense in passive form ) I tried to shout ( simple past tense, incomplete sentence ) I tried shouting ( simple past, " shouting " is a gerund ) He claimed that he was the Queen's nephew. ( simple past, " that he was the Queen's nephew " is a noun clause...

English grammar seems to be full of exceptions more than rules. This is a vast topic that could easily fill a book (or two). Where would you like to start? Plurals, past tense, present tense, gerunds, infintives, articles...