BY in Participle I

Question

In some cases I face preposition BY with participle I.

He defended his opinion by arguing that ...

You can improve your skills by surfing the Interenet...

Is that wright? I thought there shouldn't be any preposition...

When she had finished she sat staring in front of her for some minutes. (No preposition)

YoungBuddy · Accepted Answer

By + noun/ By+gerund is used to describe how in what way something is done

( Never forget that gerund is a noun in the form of the present participle of a verb, verb+ing )
for example:

Kids can get what they want sometimes by nagging ( By + gerund )
You can get an A by studying hard ( By + gerund )
I will contact you by letter ( By + noun )
I will pay by cheque. ( By + noun )

Yankee · Answer

Hi Olgaa

The first two sentences are different from your third sentence. In your first two sentences the preposition "by" indicates a method used in order to do something:
He defended his opinion by arguing that ... = The method he used in order to defend his opinion was arguing that ...

You can improve your skills by surfing the Internet... = A method you can use in order to improve your skills is surfing the internet.

OlgaaIs that wright? I thought there shouldn't be any preposition...

When she had finished she sat staring in front of her for some minutes. (No preposition)

Yes, your third sentence is right. In this case, "staring" basically simply tells you what she was doing in addition to sitting: She sat and she stared.

"Staring" does not indicate a method she used in order to sit.

YoungBuddy · Answer

YoungBuddy is used to describe how or in what way something is done

Olgaa · Answer

Now it's clear enough, thank you.

BY in Participle I

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