lexical verb + reflexive pronoun + verbING
FOUND MYSELF THINKING | FIND THEMSELVES FACING | SEE HIMSELF PLAYING | KEEP ITSELF WAITING | DEFENDED HIMSELF SAYING
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non-finite
- ‘non-finite’ verbs are not the main verb in independent clauses.
- ‘non-finite’ verbs don’t have a tense.
NO + noun + verbING
B1: NO PROBLEM GETTING | NO EVIDENCE LINKING | NO TROUBLE FINDING | NO POINT TRYING
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IMAGINE + gerund
This post relates to a B2 range of gerunds. A search in iWeb for imagin* _VVG 1 IMAGINE GOING 3285 2 IMAGINE TRYING 3183 3 IMAGINE LIVING 2565 4 IMAGINE GETTING 2190 5 IMAGINE USING 1728 6 IMAGINE TAKING 1476 7 IMAGINE WALKING 1368 8 IMAGINE WORKING 1117 9 IMAGINE SEEING 1033 10 IMAGINE SITTING
GO + verbING
Listed at A2 in the English Vocabulary Profile: go + verb-ing to go somewhere to do a particular activity For example: If you guys aren’t doing anything, we‘re all gonna go surfing. listen An iWeb search for: GO _VVG 1 GO SHOPPING 15263 ‘GO SHOPPING’ is listed at A1. Yeah, that‘s a good idea, because I was gonna go shopping for a wheelchair anyway. 2 WENT MISSING 12104 ‘GO MSSING’ is not an activity,
ing forms
On this website, ing forms are best located in our posts by searching for the tag: VVG A search in the iWeb corpus for _VVG gives the most common ing forms as follows: 1 USING 9077632 2 GOING 8570578 3 MAKING 4986719 4 LOOKING 4903064 5 WORKING 4440144 6 GETTING 4427697 7 TAKING 3186185 8
MORE * THAN (complex comparisions)
A simple comparison in English is “She is more important than you.” One way to make comparisons more complex is to increase the number of words between ‘more’ and ‘than.’ This could include nouns or adjectives followed by non-finite clauses such as in the following EXPERT EXAMPLES: Today, billions of citizens have more tools, more access to information, more capacity to influence than ever before. TED It‘s harder to compose than to play. TLC native
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Having been + PAST PARTICIPLE
Here’s an example of the preposition ‘after’ complemented by a non-finite perfect form of the passive ‘having been p.p.’ Roughly a month and a half after having been laid, the surviving eggs hatch. Listen In the English Grammar Profile, there are two similar C2 points in the category of passives: Point 38: non-finite ‘-ing’ perfect forms of the passive as the complement of prepositions. Point
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TO infinitive (purpose)
English Grammar Profile A2 point 32 in the category of CLAUSES is defined as:
non-finite subordinate clause with ‘to’, to introduce purpose
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‘Not sure if it is.’ (NOT + non-finite or ellipted clause)
Let’s look at the most common examples of non-finite or ellipted clauses used after ‘not’. Usually, we would say: I am not sure if it is possible. But we can remove the subject and verb to make an ellipted clause: Not sure if it is possible. We can also say: This is a petrol car
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comparative adjective + THAN + verb-ING
CHEAPER THAN BUYING | BETTER THAN GETTING | EASIER THAN TRYING
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before | after + VERBing
The non-finite subordinate clause is a subordinate clause that does not have a subject and verb relationship like a typical main clause. Instead, it uses verb forms such as the “-ing” form. The clause is introduced by the words “before” or “after” to indicate a specific point in time. Here’s an example to illustrate this:
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BEING + past participle ‘Being born in the …’
C1 point 32 in the category of PASSIVES is defined as: NON-FINITE CLAUSES ‘-ing’ form as a subordinate clause or a noun clause to give explanatory background information. A search in the iWeb corpus for . Being _VVN * * gives us our being + past participle list 1 . BEING LOCATED IN THE
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not + verbING (subordinate clause)
Here are examples of negative non-finite clauses giving more information: I remember thinking very highly of Private Bell not wanting to see his record tarnished by a formal charge. listen Look into my eyes so you know what it‘s like to live a life not knowing what a normal life‘s like. listen C1 English Grammar Profile point 116 CLAUSES/subordinated is defined as: non-finite clause, introduced by ‘not’ + ‘-ing’, to give more information *This is hard to find any examples of online because there are many informally ellipted
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non-finite subordinate clause
In the English Grammar Profile, point 107 in CLAUSES/subordinated is defined as: non-finite subordinate clause with an ‘-ed’ form, before a main clause, to give focus This is an overlapping grammar point for C1 point 7 FOCUS. A search in iWeb for . _VVN 1 . GONE ARE THE DAYS 5606 2 . MADE IN
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as if + NON-FINITE CLAUSE
‘As if’ means ‘as would be the case if’. Here’s an example of the subordinators as if + Verb-ing clause. She studied the bracelet as if trying to estimate its fair market value. Listen ‘trying to estimate…’ is a manner clause, it describes how she studied. We could ask the question, How did she study it? C2 point 133 CLAUSES/comparatives is defined as: ‘as if’ +
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ALTHOUGH | THOUGH + non-finite clause
In the English Grammar Profile, C2 point 131 in CLAUSES/subordinated is defined as: non-finite clauses after subordinating conjunctions ‘(although, though)’, to express contrast. … although married, my mother decided not to leave… Although committed to her job she successfully maintains her social contacts… Jack, though disappointed, respects the result. The EGP examples above, use Past Participles, but the definition above does not mention them as being critical to this as a C2 structure. *The tagging might make mistakes
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NON-FINITE past participle CLAUSES
In the English Grammar Profile, C1 point 7 in the category of FOCUS is defined as: non-finite subordinate clause with an ‘-ed’ form, before a main clause, for focus, often in formal, academic or business contexts. Also see Pearson’s 76 GSE C1: add information using appended clauses with ‘being’ and/or passive participles. Given enough time, she‘ll do
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comparative non-finite clause
B2 COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVE + ‘THAN’ + NON-FINITE CLAUSE
‘than’ + an increasing range of non-finite clauses (to-infinitive, reduced clause) forming the second part of a comparison after a comparative adjective.
(ENGLISH GRAMMAR PROFILE)
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non-finite VERBing clause
Let’s look at a simple example of starting a sentence with a ‘Verb-ing’. Our context is someone explaining how to do something on the computer. “Using a mouse, you can move a word.” This sentence can be rewritten as: You can move a word by using a mouse. The main clause is: you can
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RATHER THAN + non-finite clause | phrase
Let’s look at how ‘rather than‘ is used to compare. In the English Vocabulary Profile, at B1 the meaning is: ‘instead of ‘ rather than examples: I‘d like coffee rather than tea. I usually wear a swimsuit rather than shorts. In the above examples: coffee, tea, a swimsuit, shorts are nouns or noun phrases, so ‘rather than‘ or ‘instead of‘ are complex prepositions. Here’s
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