Search results for 'tag:Modals tag:Gerunds' matching tags 'Modals' and 'Gerunds'

Re: please help

richard_s — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:13:58 GMT

Due to is a preposition, so the first clause should be a prepositional phrase (remember that you can't use modals in prepositional phrases, so you will have to change cannotÂ to not be able to. Â The verb in the clause needs to be in gerund form. You need a comma after the prepositional phrase, not a semicolon. Â

There are only 50% good included 500pcsÂ doesn't make sense. Â Probably included should be including, but I am not sure what this sentence means.

Re: You may think / You may be thinking

CalifJim — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:38:34 GMT

The contrasts I gave you earlier in this thread are more appropriate for the conjugated forms, as, for example, when to be or a modal (will, may, etc.) is present.

For the case of infinitive (to rain) and gerund (raining), there is barely any difference, especially after the verb start. The gerund (raining) focuses slightly more on the on-going nature of the rain, so the feeling is slightly more, "What a nuisance the rain is!" or "How annoying that the rain keeps going!", but this is neutralized by the presence of start, which happens at a point in time. The act of starting cannot, by its nature, continue.

Regardless, after starting (which already has -ing), use the infinitive.

It is starting to rain is better than It is starting raining.

In short, don't try to imagine a difference between start raining and start to rain. It will just needlessly strain your brain.

Verbs

ganesh77 — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 09:38:41 GMT

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 continuous tenses) i.e. eat, run, talk

3 state of being verbs; existence verbs; state verbs; stative verbs; static verbs (a verb which describes a state and is not usually used in a continuous tense) i.e. be, own, know

4 regular verbs (a verb that has four forms and follows the normal rules)

5 irregular verbs; strong verbs (a verb not following the normal rules for inflection)

6 auxiliary and modal verbs (which make up verbal phrases) â 23 in total

7 linking verbs; copulative verbs; copulas (a verb which links the subject and complement of a clause) i.e. It is warm today.

8 transitive verbs (a verb used to talk about an action or event that involves more than one person or thing, and so is followed by an object) i.e. Sheâs wasting her money.

9 intransitive verbs (a verb used to talk about an action or event that only involved the subject and so has no object) i.e. She arrived.

10 multiword verbs

a type 1 â intransitive [phrasal verbs; adverb particle

b type 2 â transitive (inseparable) [prepositional verbs; preposition particles]

c type 3 â transitive (separable) [phrasal verbs; adverb particle]

d type 4 â transitive (with two inseparable particles) [phrasal-prepositional verbs; first particle is an adverb, second particle is a preposition]

11 compound verbs

12 delexical verbs (a verb which has very little meaning in itself but is used with an object to describe an action) i.e. She gave a small cry.

13 ditransitive verbs (a verb which can have both a direct and indirect object) i.e. She gave me a kiss.

14 ergative verbs (a verb which can be used transitively to focus on the performer of the action, or intransitively to focus on the thing affected by the action) i.e. He boiled the water. The water boiled.

15 reporting verbs; performance verbs; performative verbs (a verb used with a quote or a reported clause to describe what people say or think) i.e. suggest, say, wonder

16 reciprocal verbs (a verb which describes an action involving two people doing the same thing to each other) i.e. They met in the street.

17 reflexive verbs (a verb which is typically used with a reflexive pronoun) i.e. Donât cut yourself with that knife.

18 defective verbs (a verb without all the inflected forms of a regular verb) i.e. modals

19 finite and non-finite

a infinitives

b gerunds; verbal nouns

c participles

20 catenative verbs (a verb that takes other verb forms as objects; found at the head of a series of linked constructions) i.e. We agreed to try to decide to stop eating snacks.

21 causative verbs (a verb that designates the action necessary to cause another action to happen) i.e. The devil made me do it.

Re: look forward to (be/being) ?

Teo — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:45:26 GMT

The word "to" is often confusing in English. It can be used as part of a modal expression, infinitive or as a preposition.

Note the usage of "to" in the following sentences.

To V

I used to live in Utah.

I am supposed to go.

I hope to see you.

To V ing

I am used to living in Utah.

I am opposed to going.

I look forward to seeing you.

Modal expressions are always followed by the base form of the verb.

ought to

have to

have got to

used to

be to

be able to

be supposed to

be going to

Similar expressions are followed by infinitives (to + V)

need to V

want to V

hope to V

happen to V

mean to V

tend to V

care to V

wish to V

would like to V

be allowed to V

be inclined to V

be reluctant to V

be willing to V

be happy to V

be afraid to V

be required to V

be delighted to V

be compelled to V

Many prepositional combinations using "to" are followed by gerunds.

look forward to V ing

resort to V ing

submit to V ing

confess to V ing

give in to V ing

admit to V ing

with regards to V ing

be accustomed to V ing

be addicted to V ing

be opposed to V ing

be limited to V ing

be dedicated to V ing

be commited to V ing

be used to V ing

If you have questions or comments about this page, please contact us.
Be sure to include the title of this page in the Subject line of your e-mail.

http://www.eslgold.com/grammar/tov_not_tov.html

Part of speech identification

Eagerlearner — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:22:31 GMT

Hello, this is my first post here, I like to know these words
kilometer
centimeter

Are those words noun if they are standing alone ? if it's, what kind of noun it's, proper noun or abstract noun or etc ?

After that, I want to indentify the part of speech of the following sentence by using the stanford parser at http://nlp.stanford.edu:8080/parser/index.jsp
if you input,
convert kilometer to centimeter
it gives convert/VB kilometer/NN to/TO centimeter/VB

if you input,
convert 2 kilometers to centimeter
it gives convert/VB 2/CD kilometers/NNS to/TO centimeter/NN

You can refer to the tagset below, my question is, is the first input grammatically correct ? if it's correct the part of speech given by the program seems to be incorrect because
the centimeter should be noun instead of Verb, or am I wrong ? If you add the "2" as the second input the program gives the correct part of speech tagging,
is it because my first input grammar is incorrect ? Thank you.

Reference
1. CC Coordinating conjunction 25.TO to
2. CD Cardinal number           26.UH Interjection
3. DT Determiner                27.VB Verb, base form
4. EX Existential there     28.VBD Verb, past tense
5. FW Foreign word              29.VBG Verb, gerund/present participle
6. IN Preposition/subord.     30.VBN Verb, past participle
218z     conjunction
7. JJ Adjective                 31.VBP Verb, non-3rd ps. sing. present
8. JJR Adjective, comparative    32.VBZ Verb, 3rd ps. sing. present
9. JJS Adjective, superlative    33.WDT wh-determiner
10.LS List item marker          34.WP wh-pronoun
11.MD Modal                     35.WP Possessive wh-pronoun
12.NN Noun, singular or mass    36.WRB wh-adverb
13.NNS Noun, plural              37. # Pound sign
14.NNP Proper noun, singular     38. $ Dollar sign
15.NNPS Proper noun, plural      39. . Sentence-final punctuation
16.PDT Predeterminer             40. , Comma
17.POS Possessive ending         41. : Colon, semi-colon
18.PRP Personal pronoun          42. ( Left bracket character
19.PP Possessive pronoun        43. ) Right bracket character
20.RB Adverb                    44. " Straight double quote
21.RBR Adverb, comparative       45. ` Left open single quote
22.RBS Adverb, superlative       46. " Left open double quote
23.RP Particle                  47. ' Right close single quote
24.SYM Symbol             48. " Right close double quote

Part of Speech identification

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:16:08 GMT

if you input,
convert 2 kilometers to centimeter
it gives convert/VB 2/CD kilometers/NNS to/TO centimeter/NN

You can refer to the tagset below, my question is, is the first input setence correct ? if it's correct the part of speech given by the program seems to be incorrect because
the centimeter should be noun instead of Verb, or am I wrong ? If you add the "2" as the second input the program gives the correct part of speech tagging,
it it because my first input grammar is incorrect ? Thank you.

Reference

1. CC  Coordinating conjunction  25.TO  to 
2. CD  Cardinal number           26.UH  Interjection 
3. DT  Determiner                27.VB  Verb, base form 
4. EX  Existential there   28.VBD Verb, past tense 
5. FW  Foreign word              29.VBG Verb, gerund/present participle 
6. IN  Preposition/subord.   30.VBN Verb, past participle 
218z     conjunction 
7. JJ  Adjective                 31.VBP Verb, non-3rd ps. sing. present 
8. JJR Adjective, comparative    32.VBZ Verb, 3rd ps. sing. present 
9. JJS Adjective, superlative    33.WDT wh-determiner 
10.LS  List item marker          34.WP  wh-pronoun 
11.MD  Modal                     35.WP  Possessive wh-pronoun 
12.NN  Noun, singular or mass    36.WRB wh-adverb 
13.NNS Noun, plural              37. #  Pound sign 
14.NNP Proper noun, singular     38. $  Dollar sign 
15.NNPS Proper noun, plural      39. .  Sentence-final punctuation 
16.PDT Predeterminer             40. ,  Comma 
17.POS Possessive ending         41. :  Colon, semi-colon 
18.PRP Personal pronoun          42. (  Left bracket character 
19.PP  Possessive pronoun        43. )  Right bracket character 
20.RB  Adverb                    44. "  Straight double quote 
21.RBR Adverb, comparative       45. `  Left open single quote 
22.RBS Adverb, superlative       46. "  Left open double quote 
23.RP  Particle                  47. '  Right close single quote 
24.SYM Symbol  48. "  Right close double quote

Re: Gerunds with the verb (to) be

Charlie_boy — Fri, 04 May 2007 11:40:50 GMT

Cool Breeze wrote:
1) Leaving taps on and using too much water is very bad for the environment. (Easy, 2 gerunds right?) Right.

2) Everyone should be recycling rubbish. Should is a modal auxiliary or a defective auxiliary as these verbs are also called. It is always followed by an infinitive. Be recycling is a present continuous infinitive, and the recycling part is a present participle, not a gerund.

a) Anyone who uses private transport when they could be taking the train is wasting energy. The same grammatically as the one above; taking is a present participle, not a gerund.

The defective auxiliaries are: can, could; shall, should; will, would; may, might; must and ought. In addition, need and dare are sometimes used grammatically in the same way as these auxiliaries.

Cheers
CB

Now that's an excellent help.

(I'm the original poster by the way)

I do prefer the 'Balls to Gerunds and Participles' school of thought but I couldn't find reference to an in depth explanation. Almost everyone online has bastardised each others work and I feel that most wouldn't know the true meaning.

Excellent reply. Top class.

Thanks a lot

Re: Gerunds with the verb (to) be

Cool Breeze — Fri, 04 May 2007 10:59:35 GMT

1) Leaving taps on and using too much water is very bad for the environment. (Easy, 2 gerunds right?) Right.

2) Everyone should be recycling rubbish. Should is a modal auxiliary or a defective auxiliary as these verbs are also called. It is always followed by an infinitive. Be recycling is a present continuous infinitive, and the recycling part is a present participle, not a gerund.

a) Anyone who uses private transport when they could be taking the train is wasting energy. The same grammatically as the one above; taking is a present participle, not a gerund.

The defective auxiliaries are: can, could; shall, should; will, would; may, might; must and ought. In addition, need and dare are sometimes used grammatically in the same way as these auxiliaries.

Cheers
CB

Gerunds with the verb (to) be

Anonymous — Fri, 04 May 2007 08:20:12 GMT

Hello chaps,

My head is spinning on this one. Gerunds should of course be easy but I think I'm having a spazzy block on this one. Please check out the following examples:

1) Leaving taps on and using too much water is very bad for the environment. (Easy, 2 gerunds right?)

2) Everyone should be recycling rubbish. (I'm fizzed on this one and the modal/be/-ing set up makes me cry)

I have honestly spent the past few hours pouring obver the internet and grammar books looking for an answer to this. I understand the basic rules of when the verb becomes a gerund but number (2) and the following examples kill me:

a) Anyone who uses private transport when they could be taking the train is wasting energy. (1 gerund / 1 participle??)

Please advise. I must lie down in a dark room.

Thanks from Hong Kong

Re: omitting ''to'' in certain sentences

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:22:15 GMT

To me, the reason is not being (or not being) "idiomatic", but is about grammar.

As Yankee said, you could say either

1 You need not bother about this. or
2 You do not need to bother about this.

In sentence no. 1, need is a modal verb, so the pattern is the same as must, may, could, might, can etc (Modal + Not + Bare infinitive). For instance, you'd say "You must not bother", "You may not ask", "You might not believe" etc.

In sentence no. 2, need is not a modal verb, so it follows its regular pattern, either need+to+infinitive or need+gerund, as in :
[v -ing, v to inf] This shirt needs washing. --- This shirt needs to be washed. --- All you need to do is complete this form. ----- I didnât need to go to the bank after all. Mary lent me the money. (these examples are from OALD)