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Candinabag Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Main verb in a sentence & use of 'lay down'
I'm a little confused at the use of 'lay' and 'lie'
So here's a sentence: Tom lay down for a rest after working for 10 hours.
Why do you use lay and not lie?
Another question is from this sentence :
While Torben is sometimes described as the company's mad scientist Mikkel has gone beyond being a supplier to helping set global policy.
Why is 'helping' used instead of 'help' ?
My English teacher says because the the main verb 'has gone' is there, so the rest of the verbs in this sentence has to become v+ing or in p.p. form.
But why would 'to help' be grammatically wrong?
And I want to know how do you find the main verb of a sentence.
Thanks.
So here's a sentence: Tom lay down for a rest after working for 10 hours.
Why do you use lay and not lie?
Another question is from this sentence :
While Torben is sometimes described as the company's mad scientist Mikkel has gone beyond being a supplier to helping set global policy.
Why is 'helping' used instead of 'help' ?
My English teacher says because the the main verb 'has gone' is there, so the rest of the verbs in this sentence has to become v+ing or in p.p. form.
But why would 'to help' be grammatically wrong?
And I want to know how do you find the main verb of a sentence.
Thanks.
Top answer
Tom lay down... is Past Tense. Mikkel has gone beyond being a supplier to helping to set global policy.
- Tom lay down...
- is Past Tense.
- Mikkel has gone beyond being a supplier to helping to set global policy.
- The 'to' has been omitted, but 'set' is used as the bare infinitive, of the infinitive 'to set' and the form of construction being used is: has gone from (something) to (something) In your clause, it is ' beyond (something) to (something) Can you see that 'from' 'to' 'beyond' are prepositions - but not in the full infinitive 'to set' - and prepositions govern nouns and pronouns.
- Note how it is 'beyond something' and 'to something' - 'something' is a pronoun.
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2 Answers
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Tom lay down...
is Past Tense. Perhaps the confusion arises because:
to lie (down)
Present Tense : lie
Past Tense : lay
to lay (the table)
Present Tense : lay
Past Tense : laid
The full clause would be:
...Mikkel has gone beyond being a supplier to helping to set global policy.
is Past Tense. Perhaps the confusion arises because:
to lie (down)
Present Tense : lie
Past Tense : lay
to lay (the table)
Present Tense : lay
Past Tense : laid
The full clause would be:
...Mikkel has gone beyond being a supplier to helping to set global policy.
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I forgot to say that 'being' and 'helping' are the gerunds!
and
that the tense of the previous verb doesn't matter:
(...so we can see from this that) Mikkel goes beyond being a supplier to helping set global policy.
(...so we can see from this that) Mikkel went
and
that the tense of the previous verb doesn't matter:
(...so we can see from this that) Mikkel goes beyond being a supplier to helping set global policy.
(...so we can see from this that) Mikkel went
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