With my purse stolen,

I'm not a native speaker, but this "couldn't but feel helpless" sounds really strange to me. Shouldnt it be something like "couldn't do anything else but feel helpless" or something. Isn't is supposed to be "___ else but ___"

My purse being stolen,
Having my purse stolen,
are better than:
My purse stolen,
which is better than yours, IMO.

Teleostomi

As my purse was stolen, I couldn't help feeling helpless.
=( ) my purse stolen, I couldn't but feel helpless.

The answer was "Having". Would "With" for the parentheses wrong?

With my purse stolen, I couldn't but feel helpless.

Hi T

To my

Thanks you guys!

Hi T

To me, "Having my purse stolen" is not quite the same as "With my purse stolen" in your sentence.

To me, it sounds like the feelings of helplessness happened during the theft if you use "having".
If you use 'with' instead, the feelings of helplessness came after the theft.

Just my two cents.

Hi T

My three euro cents:

As my purse was/had been stolen, I couldn't help feeling helpless.
With my purse stolen, I couldn't help feeling helpless.

Both structures are causal to me:
Because my purse had been stolen, I couldn't help feeling helpless.

Having would be temporal to me and since as is

Cool Breeze I wouldn't actually consider it very good English in this sentence.

I agree, CB. I wouldn't either.

Thanks again!
The sentences may be exemplary English, but I think "have" used there is not "temporal 'have'".

OK, we've got opinions from professional grammarians:

Marius HancuOK, we've got opinions from professional grammarians: