Old Eladio Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
Infinitive and Present Participle
Please, help me on this. We can use the infinitive of a verb as a subject at the beginning of a sentence: “To dance is good for health”. We can also use a present participle, as a subject at the beginning of a sentence too: “Killing animals is sometimes necessary”. Now my questions:
1.- Are infinitive and present participle interchangeable as the subject at the beginning of a sentence? In other words, can I say?: “Dancing is good for health”, or “To kill animals is sometimes necessary”.
2.- If yes, that is, if I can switch them, which construct is more used in formal English and which one in conversational English.
3.- If yes, is this “rule” correct for any verb?
And thank you in advance.
Eladio
1.- Are infinitive and present participle interchangeable as the subject at the beginning of a sentence? In other words, can I say?: “Dancing is good for health”, or “To kill animals is sometimes necessary”.
2.- If yes, that is, if I can switch them, which construct is more used in formal English and which one in conversational English.
3.- If yes, is this “rule” correct for any verb?
And thank you in advance.
Eladio
Top answer
Presumably (I say, without trying to imagine all the possibilities) they are interchangeable in meaning, equally grammatical, and this is valid for all verbs. Having said that, the -ing form is much more common, and the infinitive form often seems stylistically awkward nowadays.
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Presumably (I say, without trying to imagine all the possibilities) they are interchangeable in meaning, equally grammatical, and this is valid for all verbs. Having said that, the -ing form is much more common, and the infinitive form often seems stylistically awkward nowadays.
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Thank you, Mister Micawber, for your quick and useful comment.
Eladio
Eladio
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Old EladioWe can use the infinitive of a verb as a subject at the beginning of a sentence: “To dance is good for health”. We can also use a present participle, as a subject at the beginning of a sentence too: “Killing animals is sometimes necessary”.Strictly speaking,
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Teo says that strictly speaking what I wrote was a gerund. Okay but how can I know that a verb-ing is a gerund or a present participle?
Strictly speaking this is a gerund... "speaking", gerund?
Remembering (gerund?) that man sitting (present participle?) in a dark park, makes me feel too bad, because he was talking (continuous construct) how he used to hit his wife.
Plea
Strictly speaking this is a gerund... "speaking", gerund?
Remembering (gerund?) that man sitting (present participle?) in a dark park, makes me feel too bad, because he was talking (continuous construct) how he used to hit his wife.
Plea
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A gerund is the form of a verb acting as a noun...
A present participle has a more describing quality.
And the -ing form is used with "to be".
A present participle has a more describing quality.
And the -ing form is used with "to be".
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