In Verbs^x, Inflections^x, Gerunds^x

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...

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...

Hi KFE Welcome 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...

Hi Inchoateknowledge There 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...

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 be 1. a present participle: a walking man 2. a noun: the beginning as easy 3. an adjective: I was willing to learn it 4. a...

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...