Spend vs spending

Question

Of the people I knew, those that were under the weather from time to time had imbibed excessively, spent far too much time lifting the elbow.

(Grammatically, shouldn't it be: 'spending' instead of 'spent'? What do you call this structure?)

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

It means this:

Of the people I knew, those that were under the weather from time to time had imbibed excessively, HAD spent far too much time lifting the elbow.

Mr genuine · Answer

Do we call this ellipsis?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

The sentence is overly complex, so let's remove the distracting elements:

~~Of the people I knew,~~ those ~~that were under the weather from time to time~~ had imbibed excessively, spent far too much time lifting the elbow.

You caught the mistake. "spent" is a finite verb (simple past), and is not syntactically correct.

"Spending," a non-finite verb, works fine.
...those ... had imbibed excessively, spending far too much time lifting the elbow.

Another (not so good) way to remedy the sentence is to add a coordinating conjunction:

...those ... had imbibed excessively and spent far too much time lifting the elbow.

Or add a semicolon and subject, changing the non-finite clause to a finite one:
...those ... had imbibed excessively; they spent far too much time lifting the elbow.

Ellipses (missing textual elements) are indicated in the sentences above by three dots.

Spend vs spending

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