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

Re: Two infinitives

richard_s — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:21:34 GMT

In that case, the quote is probably:

To quit in space is the same as to quit in the corridor. Â

As Clive points out, you need the asÂ in the sentence (always write the same as)Â

The infinitives can be used instead of the gerunds to give it more of a sense of 'if you do it', other than that, as Clive says, in ordinary speech we would usually use the gerund (~ing) form.

As for articles, you are right; they are very difficult to learn. Â The good news is that they are not terribly important for making yourself understood. Â If you miss a few articles, or put them incorrectly, most native speakers can understand what you mean. Â On the other hand, if you omit a subject in a clause or omit the verb, or use the wrong form of the verb, it can be really hard for a native speaker to understand.

A lot of students find the following process useful for understanding articles:

1. Identify the noun

2. decide if the noun is countable or non-count.

3.1 If it is countable, decide if it is singular or plural.

3.1.1 If it is singular, you need to decide if it is general or specific

3.1.1.1 If is is general, use a or an

3.1.1.2 if it is specific, use the

3.1.2 If it is plural, you need to decide if it is general or specific

3.1.2.1 If is isÂ general, don't use an article

3.1.2.2 if it isÂ specific, useÂ the

3.2 If it is non-count, decide if it is general or specific

3.2.1 if it is general, don't use an article

3.2.2 if it is specific, use the

If you follow that process, it will make it easier to decide if an article is needed or not; then you only need to worry about exceptions, idioms, and all of the extra tiny rules.

In your case above, spaceÂ is general and non-count.

Re: Enjoy+v-ing /noun and Like+v-ing/noun

CalifJim — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:51:57 GMT

With Do you like ...? you are normally asking about a habitual activity. A plural object is commonly used if the object is countable. You can usually add from time to time or a similar adverbial phrase without contradicting the meaning or changing the meaning significantly. With activities the infinitive and the gerund have the same meaning, but with the infinitive the focus includes making the effort to undertake the activity while with the gerund the focus is almost entirely on participating in the activity.

Do you like to read mystery stories? Do you like to watch birds? Do you like to make cakes?

Do you like [reading mystery stories / watching birds / making cakes]? (Same meanings as above.)

Do you like [to read / reading] mystery stories from time to time? (Same meaning as above.)

Do you like [to watch / watching] birds once in a while? (Same meaning as above.)

Do you like [to make / making] cakes occasionally? (Same meaning as above.)

_____

Do you like [to win / winning] the prize? doesn't seem appropriate whereas Do you like [to win / winning] prizes? does.

With intransitive verbs:

Do you like [to go / going] to the library? = Do you like [to go / going] to the library from time to time?

Do you like [to walk / walking] in the park? = Do you like [to walk / walking] in the park occasionally?

_____

The slight difference in focus is as follows:

Do you like to read mystery stories? ~ Do you like to try to find mystery stories to buy or borrow, to buy them, or to borrow them, and to read them?

Do you like reading mystery stories? ~ Do you like sitting in a chair with a mystery story in your hand, turning the pages, and reading it?

Do you like to walk in the park? ~ Do you like to check the weather to see if it's suitable for walking in the park, to get dressed in suitable clothes for walking in the park, to drive to the park, and to do the walk and return home?

Do you like walking in the park? ~ Do you like being in the park, moving your legs, getting the exercise, enjoying the trees, flowers, and birds, seeing others walking as you walk in the park?

_____

If you're not describing an activity, the infinitive might not be so appropriate.

Do you like to study in the USA? ~ You go to the USA from time to time in order to study. Do you like that?

Do you like studying in the USA? ~ You are currently studying in the USA or you have spent time studying in the USA. Do you like that?

To my ear, the second is the more natural question for this situation.

_____

In general, when the situation described cannot or is not normally done "from time to time", but only once, or only a limited number of times, Do you like ...? doesn't work, and the infinitive is especially inappropriate. For example, it is not appropriate to ask Do you like to get married? (And it would be unusual to ask Do you like getting married? as well.)

_____

When in doubt, use the -ing form. It is generally more suitable for a larger number of situations.

Re: gerund or verbal noun with an article?

Cool Breeze — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:32:42 GMT

Anonymous

Why do you think RayH seemed to have said this has to be "the fearful wailing"?

1)He heard a fearful wailing of a dog

I think he said it has to be:
2)He heard the fearful wailing of a dog

I think RayH is correct but I also think no. 1 can be correct under a right situation. I think it would have been better if the sentence had a plural noun after "of" like this:
He heard a fearful wailing of dogs

You'll have to wait for RayH's explanation for his preferences. He heard a fearful wailing of a dog is fine grammatically but it does suggest that you may hear different kinds of wailings of a dog and therefore the sentence may sound odd to some. The plural dogs simply indicates that there were at least two dogs, nothing else. No grammatical difference, really.

Grammatical terms cause confusion even among experts, so you have nothing to worry about! This is because not all grammarians and usage experts use them in the same way. There are people who don't use the term "verbal noun" at all. They regard what I consider a verbal noun as a gerund. Examples:

The speaking of English is easy. (A verbal noun and because speaking is a noun, the is posible before it. Even an adjectival attribute can be used: The correct speaking of English is easy.)

Speaking English is easy. (A gerund, which to my mind is neither a verb nor a noun but a little bit of both. The is not possible before a gerund, nor is an adjectival attribute and these two things are a clear sign (to me) that a gerund is not a noun: Correct speaking English is easy. (WRONG!!!)

Because there are hardly any inflections in English, there is bound to be occasional confusion as to the exact meaning of every word ending in ing as your example (beginning) in another post shows.

I can't remember what I have written about these things before but if you are interested, you may wish to read these posts that deal with the gerund, verbal nouns and participles and their differences:

subject of gerund gerund v present participle gerund v verbal noun

Re: gerund or verbal noun with an article?

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:19:02 GMT

Hi, thank you.

Why do you think RayH seemed to have said this has to be "the fearful wailing"?

1)He heard a fearful wailing of a dog

I think he said it has to be:
2)He heard the fearful wailing of a dog

I think RayH is correct but I also think no. 1 can be correct under a right situation. I think it would have been better if the sentence had a plural noun after "of" like this:
He heard a fearful wailing of dogs

Re: pluralization of a gerund/verbal noun

CalifJim — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:53:47 GMT

Anonymous
Can we make a plural out of a gerund ... ?

No. It's not a productive process in English. Stick to those which already exist, such as those below.

awakenings, christenings, comings, coverings, findings, flavorings, furnishings, gatherings, goings, happenings, imaginings, offerings, openings, renderings, seasonings, sufferings, wanderings, writings

Learn others as you encounter them. Don't invent new ones indiscriminately.

pluralization of a gerund/verbal noun

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:40:58 GMT

Hi,

I think I heard someone using the words like "poundings" as in "poundings of a heart."

Can we make a plural out of a gerund or what CB seemed to have called a verbal noun?

Re: indefinite article before a gerund

Cool Breeze — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:49:43 GMT

I am not sure if the following answers your question but I'll say it anyway. Some grammarians don't distinguish between verbal nouns (= complete nouns formed from verbs with the ing ending) and gerunds (= words that are neither verbs nor nouns but resemble both to some extent). Some apply the term "gerund" to both of them. Perhaps your confusion arises from that?

A verbal noun really is a noun in that it can assume all the characteristics any countable noun has. This means that it can have an article, an adjectival attribute (or more than just one) and it can occur in the plural:

The correct speaking of English is easy.

His old writings don't interest me.

Perhaps some of the "gerunds" that bother you or arouse your interest belong to this category? Mixing in your post certainly does.

Some verbal nouns have become part and parcel of the language and are included in dictionaries, like "beginning" for example. In some cases you have a choice: a happy end/ending.

Gerunds can't be preceded by an article or an adjectival attribute because they are not full-fledged nouns. They bear some resemblance to verbs: they can take an object:

Speaking English correctly is easy.

Gerund/-ing

bhikkhu1991 — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:33:47 GMT

Hello Grammar Teacher/Teachers,

1. Can we form a noun from a verb by adding a suffix ' ing ' and then by adding a suffix ' s ' to make it a plural noun ?

2. Where can I read up on this subject ?

3. In Cambridge Dictionaries Online, a gerund is a word that ends in ' -ing ' which is made from a verb,and which is used like a noun.

Can the gerund form like the way in Question 1 ?

Thank you.

With best wishes.

Mistakes made by Chinese Learners

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:30:26 GMT

Hi everyone

I 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 rude/inconsiderate, more serious transfer may affect comprehensiveness.
No inflections in L1 - tenses difficult to learn in L2 as L1 has no true tenses and concept of time is expressed by adverbs/implicit or contextual assumptions.
Difficulty distinguishing [r] & - Does anyone know why this is as I can't find a reason?!!
Prepositions such as 'on', 'in' & 'at' have one chinese translation in many contexts, 'zai' - may be confused resulting in phrases such as 'on Taiwan' instead of 'in Taiwan'.
Use of awkward gerunds e.g. 'no noising', excessive use of verbs ending in 'ing' e.g. 'do not climbing', confusion of 'ed' & 'ing' verbs e.g. 'i am bored' vs 'i am boring' --- all of these errors occur because verbs are not conjugated in chinese, for tense or pronoun.
No equivalent word for 'the' so may be used excessively when not needed e.g. 'The China' or missed out when needed. May also be confused with 'a'/'an'.
Confusion over countable and uncountable nouns, use of 'how much?' vs 'how many?' - leads to phrases such as 'I want a soup' & 'a lot of shoe'. This is due to there not being plurals in chinese - no inflections.

Switching between 'he' & 'she' - Does anyone know why this is?

If anyone can think of anymore it would be greatly appreciated or if anyone knows the answers to my questions about gender switching and distinguishing [r] & this would also help a lot!!

Thank you in advance.

Shannon

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