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Hasibrahman Posted 6 years ago
Grammar

I can understand being deceived into thinking

I am having a problem in understanding this sentence:

*I can understand being deceived into thinking it's a joke.*

Does it mean that the speaker is being deceived into thinking like that or he (the speaker) thinks that someone is being deceived into thinking like that. I mean does it mean:

? I can understand I am being deceived into thinking it's a joke.

OR

? I can understand someone is being deceived into thinking it's a joke.


Actually, I have read that the continuous(present,past,future) passive voice structure is like this: sub+helping verb+ being+ past participle+preposition+object, but here, the (sub and helping verb) part is missing and I want to know the reason. Please explain it to me.


#TIA

  

Top answer

Hasibrahman I can understand someone is being deceived into thinking it's a joke. This is the right interpretation. However, more people than just one may be involved.

— Cool Breeze

  • Hasibrahman I can understand someone is being deceived into thinking it's a joke.
  • This is the right interpretation.
  • However, more people than just one may be involved.
  • In othder words, someone could be replaced with people, for instance.
  • Also, the action need not be happening at this very moment.
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3 Answers
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HasibrahmanI can understand someone is being deceived into thinking it's a joke.

This is the right interpretation. However, more people than just one may be involved. In othder words, someone could be replaced with people, for instance. Also, the action need not be happening at this very moment. Therefore, is being deceived is not the o

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This sentence does not explicitly say that someone has been deceived into thinking or is being deceived into thinking, something is a joke.

Instead, it means that if this happens, I can understand it.


being deceived into thinking it's a joke

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HasibrahmanI can understand [ being deceived into thinking it's a joke ].

The bracketed part is the complement of the verb 'understand'.

You might want to take a look at . In that post a gerund clause was the complement of a preposition, and in your example above a gerund clause is the complement of a verb, but the principle is the same.

The tr

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