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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Sentence possibility

Should it be 'join our' or 'joining our'? Are both correct maybe?

It was a pleasure having Dr. Jones 'join our' or 'joining our' event.

It was a pleasure having the artist, Sam hirn, 'join our' or 'joining our' event.

Thanks.
  

Top answer

join You had him join the event. You didn't have him joining the event. When you invited him, you said, "We'd like to have you join our event", not "We'd like to have you joining our event".

— CalifJim

  • join You had him join the event.
  • You didn't have him joining the event.
  • When you invited him, you said, "We'd like to have you join our event", not "We'd like to have you joining our event".
  • "have" is like "experience" in this kind of context.
  • CJ
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20 Answers
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join

You had him join the event. You didn't have him joining the event.
When you invited him, you said, "We'd like to have you join our event", not "We'd like to have you joining our event".

"have" is like "experience" in this kind of context.

CJ
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CalifJimjoinYou had him join the event. You didn't have him joining the event.When you invited him, you said, "We'd like to have you join our event", not "We'd like to have you joining our event"."have" is like "experience" in this kind of context.CJ
Thanks a lot, CJ. That was what I thought, but I doubted myself when I saw that sentence on one of my native fr
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AnonymousWould this sentence also be correct "it was a pleasure that he (e.g. Dr. Jones) joined our event"?
No. "It was a pleasure" takes a for ... to ... structure.

CJ
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CalifJim AnonymousWould this sentence also be correct "it was a pleasure that he (e.g. Dr. Jones) joined our event"?No. "It was a pleasure" takes a for ... to ... structure.CJ
I see. But I did not use a for/to structure in my original sentence! What is a 'for' structure?

How about 'I am glad that you joined our event'. That would be possible, right?
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CalifJim AnonymousWould this sentence also be correct "it was a pleasure that he (e.g. Dr. Jones) joined our event"?No. "It was a pleasure" takes a for ... to ... structure.CJ
Is the .. (for) having .. (to) have .. what you meant by the 'to/for' structure (although the actual word 'for' would not be used)?
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Anonymous 'I am glad that you joined our event'.
I am glad that you came to our event.
I am glad that you attended our event.
It was a pleasure to see you at our event.
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AnonymousI did not use a for/to structure in my original sentence!
That's why it's wrong. It was a pleasure for Dr. Jones to join our event was what I was thinking of, but that's ambiguous. It would have to be It was a pleasure for us for Dr. Jones to join our event. Of course you could change it a different way and have We were pleased tha
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CalifJimIt was a pleasure for Dr. Jones to join our event was what I was thinking of, but that's ambiguous.
But why would “.. a pleasure having him join ..” imply “.. a pleasure for him to join ..”? It is obvious to me that the pleasure was ours, not his!!

Did you mean in your first reply by ‘have you join’ meaning ‘experience’ that the
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AnonymousBut why would “.. a pleasure having him join ..” imply “.. a pleasure for him to join ..”? It is obvious to me that the pleasure was ours, not his!!
Right. That's why I rejected my first version.
AnonymousDid you mean in your first reply by ‘have you join’ meaning ‘experience’ that the person actually takes part in the event,
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CalifJimRight. That's why I rejected my first version
I see. Then why did you say that the sentence was wrong? Isn’t it understandable?

I have seen many sentences such as “it was a pleasure having you here”, “it was a pleasure seeing you at the event”. These sentences don’t have the ‘for structure’. But aren’t these sentences correct?
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