. ~ing clauses (Feeling tired, I went to bed early.)

. ~ing clauses (Feeling tired, I went to bed early.)

A. A clause is a part of a sentence. Some sentences have two or more clauses:

* Jim hurt his arm (main clause) playing tennis.(~ing clause)

* Feeling tired,(~ing clause) I went to bed early.(main clause)

'Playing tennis' and 'feeling tired' are ~ing clauses.

If the ~ing clause is first (as in the second example), we write a comma (,) between the clauses.

B. When two things happen at the same time, you can use ~ing for one of the verbs. The main clause

usually comes first:

* I've just seen Carol. She's in the bar having a drink. (= she is in the bar and she is having a drink)

* A man ran out of the house shouting. (= he ran out of the house and he was shouting)

* Do something! Don't just stand there doing nothing!

We also use ~ing when one action happens during another action. We use ~ing for the longer action. The

longer action is the second part of the sentence:

* Jim hurt his arm playing tennis. (= while he was playing)

* Did you cut yourself shaving? (= while you were shaving)

You can also use ~ing after while or when:

* Jim hurt his arm while playing tennis.

* Be careful when crossing the road. (= when you are crossing)

C. When one action happens before another action, we use having (done) for the first action:

* Having found a hotel, we looked for somewhere to have dinner.

* Having finished her work, she went home.

You can also say after ~ing:

* After finishing her work, she went home.

If one short action follows another short action, you can use the simple ~ing form (doing instead of having

done) for the first action:

* Taking a key out of his pocket, he opened the door.

These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.

D. You can use an ~ing clause to explain something or to say why somebody does something. The~ing

clause usually comes first:

* Feeling tired, I went to bed early. (= because I felt tired)

* Being unemployed, he hasn't got much money. (= because he is unemployed)

* Not having a car, she finds it difficult to get around. (= because she doesn't have a car)

* Having already seen the film twice, I didn't want to go to the cinema. (= because I had already seen it

twice)

These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.