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Shawtime Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

About this sentence

Hi! I would like to ask a sentence: "A lot of financial corruptions have been emerging one after another recently, it shows that our ability of detecting crime needs reinforcing." About the final word "reinforcing", if we should change it to "reinforced". Could you please kindly tell me the answer and why?
thank you very much
  

Top answer

A lot of financial corruptions have been emerging one after another recently . I t shows that our ability to detect crime needs reinforcing . The verb need s should be followed by a noun ( reinforcement ) or a gerund ( reinforcing ), not a past participle.

  • A lot of financial corruptions have been emerging one after another recently .
  • I t shows that our ability to detect crime needs reinforcing .
  • The verb need s should be followed by a noun ( reinforcement ) or a gerund ( reinforcing ), not a past participle.
  • However, you can say needs to be reinforced.
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2 Answers
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A lot of financial corruptions have been emerging one after another recently. It shows that our ability to detect crime needs reinforcing.

The verb needs should be followed by a noun (reinforcement) or a gerund (reinforcing), not a past participle. However, you can say needs to be reinforced.
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Hi;

Corruption is usually a non-count noun. The evidence of systemic corruption is the uncovering of incidents of malfeasance or illegal activity such as bribes.
There are also comma splices in your text.

A lot of financial corruption has been emerging; one incident after another has occurred recently. It shows that our ability of detecting

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