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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Subject of gerund in structure S + V + O + gerund + O
The fire destroyes hundreds of houses, killing tens of people.
The fire happened last week, killing tens of people.
When I studied in class, my teacher said that the subject of "killing" in the latter is "the fire" and we can use Gerund like that, so the latter is right. But when I compared 2 of them, the subject of killing in the former sentence should be houses, is it right ? I'm still confused about them. Can you please give me some explanations ?
Thanks
The fire happened last week, killing tens of people.
When I studied in class, my teacher said that the subject of "killing" in the latter is "the fire" and we can use Gerund like that, so the latter is right. But when I compared 2 of them, the subject of killing in the former sentence should be houses, is it right ? I'm still confused about them. Can you please give me some explanations ?
Thanks
Top answer
Hi, In both sentences, the subject of killing is understood to be the fire . SJD87
- Hi, In both sentences, the subject of killing is understood to be the fire .
- SJD87
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11 Answers
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Hi,
In both sentences, the subject of killing is understood to be the fire.
SJD87
In both sentences, the subject of killing is understood to be the fire.
SJD87
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I don't think either of those examples has "killing" as a gerund. In fact, I think they are participial phrases modifying "the fire". Gerunds act like nouns, and they almost never have punctuation. Example of a gerund:
The fire caused the killing.
("killing" is a gerund acting as the direct object)
The fire, killing the people, destroys hundreds of houses.
("
The fire caused the killing.
("killing" is a gerund acting as the direct object)
The fire, killing the people, destroys hundreds of houses.
("
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AnonymousThe fire destroyes hundreds of houses, killing tens of people.
The fire destroyed hundreds of houses, killing dozens of people.
CB
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The fire destroyed hundreds of houses killing tens of people.
The fire destroyed hundreds of houses rebuilt after the earthquake
The fire happened last week killing tens of people.
As the meaning, "rebuilt" is past participle of houses and "killing" of the 1st sentence is present participle of houses as well. Therefore, the meaning of the 1st one should be wrong, right ? How abo
The fire destroyed hundreds of houses rebuilt after the earthquake
The fire happened last week killing tens of people.
As the meaning, "rebuilt" is past participle of houses and "killing" of the 1st sentence is present participle of houses as well. Therefore, the meaning of the 1st one should be wrong, right ? How abo
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The fire destroyed hundreds of houses killing tens of people.
The fire destroyed hundreds of houses rebuilt after the earthquake
The fire happened last week killing tens of people.
As the meaning, "rebuilt" is past participle of houses and "killing" of the 1st sentence is present participle of houses as well. Therefore, the meaning of the 1st one should be wrong, right ? How abo
The fire destroyed hundreds of houses rebuilt after the earthquake
The fire happened last week killing tens of people.
As the meaning, "rebuilt" is past participle of houses and "killing" of the 1st sentence is present participle of houses as well. Therefore, the meaning of the 1st one should be wrong, right ? How abo
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It's probably not a good idea to suspend common sense when reading a sentence. Killer houses don't make a lot of sense except maybe in science fiction.
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thanks for your explanation,
In those sentences, I just want to know if it's possible to the key as a subject of erasing. In sum, I don't know when the subject of the present participial is The user or the key. We need to use the comma to distinguish them, don't we ?
About the meaning of my sentences, The fire killed people, not the houses, so that I want to check whether or not they
In those sentences, I just want to know if it's possible to the key as a subject of erasing. In sum, I don't know when the subject of the present participial is The user or the key. We need to use the comma to distinguish them, don't we ?
About the meaning of my sentences, The fire killed people, not the houses, so that I want to check whether or not they
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AnonymousI don't know when the subject of the present participial is The user or the key. We need to use the comma to distinguish them, don't we ?The user did the erasing; the user is the subject. The comma helps us to see this, though not everyone is careful about the placement of commas, so you will see some variation in the punctuation.
You
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I need to know if the word killing is a gerund or a participle in this sentence. A colleague and I have a different opinion. "Killing time is what I like to do best." Does anyone know?
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