. ~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.
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