I did my homework, and I make a mistake. about v / v-ing

Question

[All flights _ owing to the heavy fog,many passengers could do nothing but take trains.]  I wrote "have been cancelled" on line, but the true answer is "having been cancelled" . So why use "having" rather than "have" ?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

LeeJunxiang I wrote "have been cancelled"

In that case you created the mistake called "a comma splice". You created two independent clauses connected by a comma.

(1) All flights have been cancelled owing to the heavy fog, (2) many passengers could do nothing but take trains.

'have been cancelled' is a finite verb phrase. The clause that contains it does not begin with any kind of conjunction.
'could do' is a finite verb phrase. The clause that contains it does not begin with any kind of conjunction.
That gives the two independent clauses shown above. When connected by nothing else but a comma, you have "a comma splice", which is wrong.

LeeJunxiangthe true answer is "having been cancelled"

That makes this:

(1) All flights having been cancelled owing to the heavy fog, (2) many passengers could do nothing but take trains.

Now the first clause is a non-finite clause because 'having been cancelled' is a non-finite verb phrase. In this sentence the use of this non-finite (participle) clause makes clause (1) subordinate, i.e., dependent. It is equivalent to "Because all flights were cancelled owing to the heavy fog". Now that you no longer have two independent clauses (but one dependent and one independent), you don't have to worry about a comma splice mistake.

CJ

I did my homework, and I make a mistake. about v / v-ing

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