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The Infinitive as ParenthesisThe infinitive as parenthesis is used with to. It is generally a set phrase, such
The place of the parenthetic phrase in the sentence is not fixed though it is To be perfectly frank, you are a bad driver. To be fair, he wasn’t entirely to blame. To cut a long story short, we said ‘No’. To make matters worse, it began to rain and soon we got wet to Strange to say, he has never been in the theatre. To put it at its simplest, he believed in Nature. To cap misfortune, the postman brought him five returned manuscripts. He is acting rather rashly, to say the least. When they found out I was not one of them, so to speak, they ignored me.
THE GERUND Form and Use The form of a verb ending in –ing is sometimes called (a) the present Active Passive Simple reading being read Perfect having read having been read
Functions of the Gerund
A. The gerund has most of the characteristics of a noun. Thus, it can be: 1. The subject of a sentence: Beating a child will do more harm than good. The reading of the will took place in the lawyer’s office. The gerund is used in short prohibitions: No smoking. No parking. No fishing. But these cannot be followed by an object, so prohibitions involving an Do not touch these wires. Do not feed the lions. 2. The complement of a sentence: To keep money that you have found is stealing. Seeing is believing. 4. The object of a preposition (see 112): She is very fond of dancing. He left without saying anything. The only part of a verb that can be the object of a preposition is a gerund.
B. But the gerund has some characteristics of a verb. His hobby is collecting stamps. Meeting you has been a great pleasure. She likes driving fast. Speaking English fluently needs a lot of work.
C. The gerund can be a noun modifier: A walking stick a swimming pool a reading room Note the difference in meaning between the participle as a modifier and the PARTICIPLE a dancing bear (=a bear which dances), a sleeping child GERUND a dancing teacher (=a teacher of dancing), a sleeping carriage Date: 2015-12-11; view: 5595
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