gerund

Question

Some examples I've seen in the grammar text are suggested to be an informal type of use.

e.g. It is convenient living so close to the station.
It was nice seeing you.
It surprised me your not remembering the task.

And the gerund contruction is postponed for its lengthiness being replaced by the expletive it.

So there seems to have not any problem in this kind of construction, which makes me wonder why the above three sentences are used as an informal style.

Even though it goes rather too far to attribute the formality only to the grammaticality, the other factors such as familiarity, the properness etc. are still determined by the grammar, I think.

So my thinking is that there should be no constraint on using this kind of construction including the above three sentences in formal writing.

Is my thinking acceptable?

Dimsumexpress · Accepted Answer

cho7712It is convenient living so close to the station.

It was nice seeing you (again) .

It surprised me your not remembering the task.

1) As written, acceptable. "Living " is used a a present participle. Alternatively, we can say " living so close to the station is very convenient.." In this case, "Living" is a gerund. So it depends on how you want to use it.
2) It's fine as written. Again, depending on context, "to see" is also grammatical.
3) Not grammatical at all. Possible: Your not remembering the tasks surprised me.

CalifJim · Answer

cho7712informal type of use

The third example (It surprised ...) is definitely informal, if it's used at all, and it may be regional. It sounds wrong to me.

The other two seem fine, and not particularly informal or formal.

CJ

Cho7712 · Answer

Thank you so much,
The book itself is not that sufficient that I really get much help from your answers.

gerund

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