By Gerunds, Inflections

Hi everyoneI just wondered if anyone could help - I have to write a profile of a chinese learner of English (completely made up). In it I must put any difficulties that the learner has in learning English as an L2. I have got so far:Intonation transfer from L1 may cause them to be perceived as...

The list isn't meant to be exhaustive or carefully arranged. Any additions, corrections or further examples would be welcomed. 1 main verbs; lexical verbs (all verbs which are not auxiliaries or modals) 2 action verbs; event verbs; dynamic verbs (a verb which can be used in...

Welcome to EF, Pur. Barking is a present participle in your example. It is used adjectivally, it tells us what kind of a dog is in question or what the dog is doing.Training dogs may be difficult sometimes.This sentence (usually ) means that the dogs are being trained and thus training is a...

Hi KFEWelcome to EF. You have already learned about the continuous tenses (I am reading, he is coming etc.) and no doubt you'll learn about other ways to use the ing-ending in due course.Because there are only a handful of inflections in English, the same verb forms must be used in many functions...

Hi InchoateknowledgeThere are of course very few words and inflections that can be said to be absolutely synonymous. Begin, start, hate, like, dislike, love, neglect, prefer, continue, and cease are often mentioned in lists of verbs that can take an infinitive or a gerund with little or no change...

Owing to the fact that there are so few inflections in English, the few inflected forms that there are are used in a number of ways. An ing-form, for example, can be1. a present participle: a walking man2. a noun: the beginning as easy3. an adjective: I was willing to learn it4. a preposition:...

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...