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Bamtori Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

the form of ~ing

0"Would you believe me if I told you three ghosts came to visit me last night, showing me what would happen if I didn't?"02br
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00In the above sentence, three ghosts's visiting happend before they showed the speaker what would happen. My question is, why did the speaker use the form of ~ing for the verb "show". Isn't the form of ~ing used to mean that something is happening at the same time as something else?0-
  

Top answer

0I agree with your concern, but you haven't given us quite enough context to be sure. 0-

— Mister Micawber

  • 0I agree with your concern, but you haven't given us quite enough context to be sure.
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8 Answers
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0I agree with your concern, but you haven't given us quite enough context to be sure. Were01i00 the02i00 01i00ghosts02i00 showing the speaker, or was 01i00the coming of the ghosts02i00 showing the speaker?0-
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0 They did show the speaker what would happen during their visit. How could they show him anything if they weren't even there? 0-
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0 They did show the speaker what would happen during their visit. How could they show him anything if they weren't even there? 0-
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0I think the ghosts were showing the speaker.0-
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0Ah. But how, indeed, could they 01i00come showing02i00? It does seem odd to me-- they must have been 01i00showing02i00 as they flew in. I would have thought that they would first arrive, catch their breaths a bit, accept the offer of tea perhaps, and only then set about the demonstration of the dire consequences of not doing...whatever: 01i
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0Is there any chance that "showing me..." is an attendant fact or circumstance like the yelling in this sentence: He opened the doors into total pandemonium, with technicians 01u00yelling at each other02u00? 0-
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0Well, not to me, because in this last sentence it makes sense: the technicians are in the background 01i00yelling02i00 (ongoing activity) when 01i00the door opens02i00 (point event). It is not as much a matter of the sentence structure as it is of the semantic sense.02br
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00In the original, the ghosts were 01i00sh
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01cite10Nona The Brit12cite10They did show the speaker what would happen during their visit. How could they show him anything if they weren't even there?12blockquote
10Nona,02br
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00In the past couple of days, your posts are appearning twice. Did you notice it?050010id1
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