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Qingqing Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Gerund as a subject
--Why were you so late for work today?
--_____ to the office was very slow this morning because of the heavy trafic.
A.Driving B.To drive
The answer is A.
As far as I know, the infinitive using as a subject is related to a concrete thing. I want to know why "To drive" is wrong? Will you please help me?
--_____ to the office was very slow this morning because of the heavy trafic.
A.Driving B.To drive
The answer is A.
As far as I know, the infinitive using as a subject is related to a concrete thing. I want to know why "To drive" is wrong? Will you please help me?
Top answer
Gerunds are used to describe an "actual, vivid, or fulfilled action" whereas infinitives are better used to describe "potential, hypothetical, or future events" (Frodesen & Eyring) A description of how slow traffic was would be an actuality. In contrast "To drive to the office in heavy traffic could be dangerous" is a potentiality. " CJ
- Gerunds are used to describe an "actual, vivid, or fulfilled action" whereas infinitives are better used to describe "potential, hypothetical, or future events" (Frodesen & Eyring) A description of how slow traffic was would be an actuality.
- In contrast "To drive to the office in heavy traffic could be dangerous" is a potentiality.
- " CJ
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6 Answers
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Gerunds are used to describe an "actual, vivid, or fulfilled action" whereas infinitives are better used to describe "potential, hypothetical, or future events" (Frodesen & Eyring)
A description of how slow traffic was would be an actuality.
In contrast "To drive to the office in heavy traffic could be dangerous" is a potentiality. The infinitive is more often postposed in su
A description of how slow traffic was would be an actuality.
In contrast "To drive to the office in heavy traffic could be dangerous" is a potentiality. The infinitive is more often postposed in su
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Hi.
You referenced:
Gerunds are used to describe an "actual, vivid, or fulfilled action" whereas infinitives are better used to describe "potential, hypothetical, or future events" (Frodesen & Eyring)
I thought a comma is placed before the word "whereas" in most cases, if not all cases. Why is it that no comma was used? Is the pattern similar to this pattern that has a
You referenced:
Gerunds are used to describe an "actual, vivid, or fulfilled action" whereas infinitives are better used to describe "potential, hypothetical, or future events" (Frodesen & Eyring)
I thought a comma is placed before the word "whereas" in most cases, if not all cases. Why is it that no comma was used? Is the pattern similar to this pattern that has a
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AnonymousI thought a comma is placed before the word "whereas" in most cases, if not all cases. Why is it that no comma was used?It needs a comma. Perhaps the comma was not used because the writer was more concerned with the message than with the details of punctuation at the time of writing. Or perhaps it was a typographical error in quoting the source.
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to drive to the office was very slow this morning because of the heavy traffic. yah that makes sense.
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