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Ken, Moderator
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Oct 02, 2010 06:46AM
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Newengland wrote: "Does this have anything to do with your being in love with her? Doesn't sound stuffy to me. Turkeys and teddy bears sound stuffy -- not gerunds (a different animal altogether!)."I guess you've never seen that poor turkey holding a sign that says: "This year, try a ham!"
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And the cow was holding a sign that said don't look at me.
Newengland wrote: "I did see it, but the pig was holding a bigger sign that said, "Respect your traditions!""LOL And who could eat Babe, anyway?
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We go out to a buffet on Thanksgiving. And we go to restaurant on Christmas. I miss the home cooked meals, but we would never eat all the leftovers. I don't even eat any meat at all. I'm not a big meat eater. I don't think I've had red meat for twelve, maybe fifteen years, with the exception of one Wendy's hamburger that made me sick - because I don't eat meat.
I just took out Mary's little lamb for tonight's dinner.
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Sandy, you've correctly used your being in love with her, and correctly identified your being as a gerund phrase, in which your modifies being, the gerund. The prepositional phrase in love modifies being. The prepositional phrase with her modifies the phrase in love. The basic sentence is This is to do, in which to do is an infinitive used as a subject complement. The complex phrase with your being in love with her modifies to do. Grammatically, there's nothing wrong with the sentence.How else might you say it? Are you in love with her? Or Are you doing this because you're in love with her? Or Is this happening because you're in love with her?
I eat tuna and salmon, but last time I had both I got sick. I may have to become a vegetarian. I have a very finicky stomach.
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Wow, M. As a seat-of-the-pants grammarian, I am impressed.
I could never understand the use or the reason for a gerund. Thanks M I think I understand it now. (grumbling after 62 years I feel so dumb)
Thanks, Ruth! I'm terrible at grammar. If it weren't for the process of elimination afforded by prepositional phrases, I'd be completely lost.
Sandy wrote: "When writing I always break the gerund rule. To have a character say, "Is this to do with your being in love with her?" sounds so stuffy."You could write: "Is this to do with the fact that you're in love with her?" and not break the gerund rule, but that might still sound stuffy to you.
Apropos the gerund - I've only just found the time to come back on this thread. Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll continue to avoid gerunds in my writing, with the exception, maybe, of a character who is very posh.
Sandy, you can't avoid gerunds in your writing! How else are you going to say that writing is a pleasure or that running makes you tired or that cooking is an art?
M wrote: "Sandy, you can't avoid gerunds in your writing! How else are you going to say that writing is a pleasure or that running makes you tired or that cooking is an art?"Use infinitives? To write is a pleasure, to run makes me tired (it actually energizes me), to cook is an art?
That might work. I don't know. I have no objection to gerunds myself.
MrsSeby wrote: "Sandy wrote: "When writing I always break the gerund rule. To have a character say, "Is this to do with your being in love with her?" sounds so stuffy."You could write: "Is this to do with the ..."
"Is this because you are in love with her?"...followed by big slashing red pen...."Because you are in love with her?"....followed by convert-to-spoken-contraction...."Because you're in love with her?"
Think M might have suggested a similar version a post or so back....
If I didn't have a gerund
I couldn't run an errand
I'd be stuck in front
or left behind
and never get where I was going!
G N wrote: "MrsSeby wrote: "Sandy wrote: "When writing I always break the gerund rule. To have a character say, "Is this to do with your being in love with her?" sounds so stuffy."You could write: "Is thi..."
I think I've mislead both you and M, MrsSeby. I meant I would minimize the use of the gerund in direct speech. I always use gerunds in the narrative. Indeed, they can't be avoided - not that I have anything against them.
MrsSeby wrote: " I don't eat any meat at all."a fellow vegie!
G N wrote: "MrsSeby wrote: " I don't eat any meat at all."a fellow vegie!"
Oh, absolutely, though I wasn't always.
In our region there's a chain of restaurants called Jason's Deli. They make a decent ham muffaletta and a vegetarian variant of it called, unsurprisingly, a veggaletta, made on muffaletta bread and (to quote their menu) "filled with grilled portobello mushrooms, provolone, organic spinach, tomatoes, red and yellow bell peppers, purple onions and fresh-made muffaletta olive mix." Even I like it, and I'm an incorrigible red meat addict.
It sounds good to me. All but the peppers. I don't like peppers on sandwiches.
M wrote: "In our region there's a chain of restaurants called Jason's Deli....a vegetarian variant called, unsurprisingly, a veggaletta, made on muffaletta bread and..."ok...now I'm getting hungry...this is a very distracting condtion to a serious writer!
Wait till you try their Chicago Club sandwich, G N! Now I'm getting hungry.
