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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

~ed, ~ing

'We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt' (The Cask of Amontillado, 1846)

I wonder why the 3rd underlined verb descend is used with ~ing except others with ~ed..

any difference if it is used descended as the first underlined verb ?
  

Top answer

Passed, descended and arrived are the main verbs of the sentence; they are finite. Descending is a participle heading a nonfinite clause ('descending again') acting as an adverbial.

— Mister Micawber

  • Passed, descended and arrived are the main verbs of the sentence; they are finite.
  • Descending is a participle heading a nonfinite clause ('descending again') acting as an adverbial.
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4 Answers
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Passed, descended and arrived are the main verbs of the sentence; they are finite. Descending is a participle heading a nonfinite clause ('descending again') acting as an adverbial.
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Anonymous'We passed through a range of low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep crypt' (The Cask of Amontillado, 1846)

I find it unusual that 'and' precedes the ing clause. I think 'and' seems only necessary, or perhaps even only correct, if we include the subject 'we' before arrived, in which case 'and' would be joining t
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English 1b3am I all off here?
I'm afraid so.

Here's the main structure:


We passed through ..., descended, passed on, and arrived ....

Not really different from:

We cooked the meal, put it on the table, ate it, and then washed the dishes.

descending again is the means by which
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CalifJimPut a comma after and to see how descending again is parenthetica

Ah, I see. I made the mistake of trying to parse the sentence without attempting to understand the meaning of the sentence first. How stupid is that!!!?
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