I paused, not knowing what to say, before answering.

Question

Hello, I found this sentence. I would like to know if somebody could explain me the grammar behind the "not knowing", why is it in the ing form?  What tense does it belong to?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

file lime 818 I paused, not knowing what to say, before answering.
I would like to know if somebody could explain me the grammar behind ~~the~~ "not knowing". Why is it in the ing form?

not knowing what to say is a participle clause. A participle clause is a non-finite construction. That means it has no tense. Its verb is always a participle (no auxiliary verb). In this case it's the present participle, which always ends in -ing. It takes its tense from the tense in the main clause, which is always a finite clause and therefore has a tense. It also takes its subject from the main clause.

Participle clauses also have some logical relationship to the rest of the sentence. Sometimes they show a result. Sometimes they show a reason or a condition. The reader has to figure out this relationship because it is not stated explicitly. In this example the relationship is because. So if you wanted to express the non-finite participle clause as a subordinate finite clause, you would have the following:

I paused, not knowing what to say, before answering.
=
I paused, because I did not know what to say, before answering.

CJ

I paused, not knowing what to say, before answering.

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