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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
His inferring that ...
Does this sentence the following sentence refer to the past and the present. If the person who did the inferring is now dead, should I change it to the past tense? I'm a little confused as to the temporal meaning of the sentence!
His inferring that a particular sentence ought to be written out by hand gave him great satisfaction.
His inferring that a particular sentence ought to be written out by hand gave him great satisfaction.
Top answer
Anonymous His inferring ... 'inferring' is the -ing form of the verb 'infer'. It's a gerund here, a non-finite construction, not a finite verb phrase.
- Anonymous His inferring ...
- 'inferring' is the -ing form of the verb 'infer'.
- It's a gerund here, a non-finite construction, not a finite verb phrase.
- Non-finite constructions take their tense from the rest of the sentence, so this is not 'present tense'.
- Anonymous gave him great satisfaction.
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1 Answers
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AnonymousHis inferring ...'inferring' is the -ing form of the verb 'infer'. It's a gerund here, a non-finite construction, not a finite verb phrase. Non-finite constructions take their tense from the rest of the sentence, so this is not 'present tense'.
Anonymousgave him great satisfaction.'gave' is the past tense of the
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