end up

TakaHe ended up telling his wife the truth.

If I added 'with' after the 'ended up' here, as:

He ended up with telling his wife the truth.

would it still sound OK?

Yes, or "by".

No, it's a different meaning of the phrase.

To end up with means that's what remained. I ended up with three dollars after our day at the zoo.

To end up [doing someting] means that's the action you took, perhaps after a lot of thought or trying other things first.

I suppose, in your case, you could construct a scenario: Bill tried to think of

I don't think with is OK in this context, with -ing forms. There aren't really many examples at Yahoo on that.

by is more acceptable.

Grammar GeekI suppose, in your case, you could construct a scenario: Bill tried to think of a way out. He thought about lying. He thought about asking is friend to lie. But after a lot of consideration, he ended up with telling his wife the truth as the best course of action.

GG,

So, it's not that 'end up with -ing' is grammatically unacce

Seems some people don't like that use. Better to use "he ended up telling...".

TakaGG,

So, it's not that 'end up with -ing' is grammatically unacceptable, but that the meaning is different from that of 'end up -ing'.

Did I get it right?

Yes, I think so. It's grammatically okay, but you really have to "stretch" to come up with a scenario that fits it, like I did. My example is awkard, I think, and I wo

Grammar Geek Ending up with [noun] It's awkard, I think

Really!?

I thi

Sorry - badly punctuated sentence. It should be "ended up with [noun]." I meant that my contrived example was awkward. My apologies for the lack of clarity - I'm going to edit if I can to fix it.

Yes, Taka, that's a good expression. It means "he ended up thinking that...". Similar is "he was left with the idea that..."

GG,

Reading back carefully what you said, I got stuck on this part.

Grammar Geek He thought about asking is friend to lie.

What did you mean by 'about asking is friend'??