Gerunds Use in the Passive Voice
I keep reading that there's never a direct object in a passive sentence as any "object" is really the agent of the verb. What, then, would be the form of the gerund "cheating" here:
He was caught cheating on the exam.
Would it be the subject complement or something?
Top answer
I can't say I'm sure what is troubling you about this sentence, but it's pretty normal. The subject of the participle clause is implicitly the same as the explicit subject in the main clause ( he ): He was caught — He [ was cheating / cheated] on the exam. Note also that while participle clauses are non-finite constructions and therefore have no tense, they inherit their tense from the main clause ( was caught > was cheating/cheated ).
- I can't say I'm sure what is troubling you about this sentence, but it's pretty normal.
- The subject of the participle clause is implicitly the same as the explicit subject in the main clause ( he ): He was caught — He [ was cheating / cheated] on the exam.
- Note also that while participle clauses are non-finite constructions and therefore have no tense, they inherit their tense from the main clause ( was caught > was cheating/cheated ).
- Active and passive have nothing to do with it.
- 'cheating on the exam' is a participle clause, not a gerund construction.
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I can't say I'm sure what is troubling you about this sentence, but it's pretty normal.
The subject of the participle clause is implicitly the same as the explicit subject in the main clause (he):
He was caught — He [was cheating / cheated] on the exam.
Note also that while participle clauses are non-finite constructions and therefore
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