| to accuse | smb. | of | to blame | smb. | for |
| to suspect | smb. | of | to praise | smb. | for |
| to prevent | smb. | from | to punish | smb | for |
| to stop | smb | from | to sentence | smb | for |
| to assist | smb. | in | to have no difficulty | in | |
| to help | smb. | in | to congratulate | smb. | on |
| to thank | smb. | for | to remind | smb. | of |
Gerund as a Prepositional Object after Adjectives and Statives
| to be afraid | of | to be proud | of |
| to be aware | of | to be sure | of |
| to be conscious | of | to be responsible | of |
| to be capable | of | to be sorry | about |
| to be fond | of | to be keen | on |
| to be ignorant | of | to be ashamed | of |
Gerund as a Prepositional Object after Participle II,
Generally Used as a Predicative
| to be accustomed | to | to be (dis)pleased | with/at |
| to be used | to | to be surprised | at |
| to be absorbed | in | to be tired | of |
| to be engrossed | in | to be disappointed | with |
FUNCTIONS OF GERUND
| FUNCTIONS | PREPOSITIONS | EXAMPLES | |||
| SUBJECT | ________ | Translating such texts is rather difficult.*** It is no use translating this text without a dictionary. | |||
| PREDICATIVE | ____/like ** | My problem is getting to sleep on time. I don’t feel like going to bed yet. | |||
| PART OF A COMPOUND VERBAL ASPECTIVE PREDICATE | ________ |
| |||
| DIRECT OBJECT * | _________ | He suggested going to the museum. He denies having met her. | |||
| PREPOSITIONAL OBJECT * | of, about, on, in, for, from, at, to, etc.** | He insisted on going home. She was not conscious of having shown any special interest in Tom. | |||
| ATTRIBUTE | of, about, in, at, for, to ** | He was busy and gave up the idea of going to the seaside. | |||
| AM of TIME | after, before, on, in, at | She looked at him steadily before answering. | |||
| AM of PURPOSE | for, for fear of, for the sake of, for the purpose of | He wants to visit a solicitor tomorrow for the purpose of making a new will. | |||
| AM of CONDITION | without, but for | He won’t go without saying good-bye. | |||
| AM of CAUSE * | for, through, owing to, for fear of, due to, because of | Through being left out all night in the rain, the metal had rusted. He felt better for having written the letter. | |||
| AM of ATTENDANT* CIRCUMSTANCES | without, instead of | He went away instead of working. He arrived at the age of forty-five without having once appeared upon a stage. | |||
| AM of CONCESSION | in spite of, despite | In spite of being busy, she managed to translate the text. | |||
| AM of MANNER | in, by | Her evening was spent in reading. | |||
| AM of COMPARISON | _________ | The country is much better for you than working in the hot city all summer. | |||
| * In these cases the Perfect Gerund may occur. ** The choice of these prepositions is determined by V, A, N. *** The Gerund would not occur after “essential”, “important”, “necessary”. |
Predicative Constructions with the Gerund
Like all the verbals the gerund can form predicative constructions, i.e. constructions in which the verbal element expressed by the gerund is in predicate relation to the nominal element expressed by a noun or a pronoun, e.g.:
I don’t like your going off without any money.
Note: Some grammarians recognize the existence of the two separate constructions:
the Gerundial Construction – the nominal element of which is expressed by a noun in the genitive case or by a possessive pronoun and
the Half-Gerundial Construction – the nominal element of which is expressed by a noun in the common case, a pronoun in the objective case, or a pronoun which has no case distinctions.
The nominal element of the construction can be expressed in different ways:
1. by a noun in the genitive case or by a possessive pronoun, e.g.:
Do you mind Jack’s (his) smoking?
I insist on Mary’s (her) going there.
The Gerundial Construction
2. by a noun in the common case, e.g.:
#Fancy David courting Emily!
The Half-Gerundial Construction
Note: Thus in Modern English there are two parallel constructions of the type:
Fancy David’s courting Emily!
Fancy David courting Emily!
3. by a pronoun in the objective case, e.g.:
I hope you will forgive me disturbing you.
The Half-Gerundial Construction
4. by a pronoun which has no case distinctions, such as all, this, that, both, each, something, e.g.:
I insist on both of them coming.
The Half-Gerundial Construction
A gerundial construction is nearly always rendered in Russian by a subordinate clause, generally introduced by те, що; тим, що; як, etc.
His being a foreigner, an ex-enemy, was bad enough.
Her thoughts were interrupted at last, by the door opening gently.
I began to picture to myself … my being found dead in a day or two, under some hedge.
Functions of the (Half)-Gerundial Constructions
Complex subject:
Your going there won’t help much.
It was quite unexpected his coming back so soon.
Complex predicative:
What annoyed me most of all was his accepting their proposal quite readily.
Complex direct object
Do you mind my opening the window?
Complex prepositional object
I rely on your coming in time.
Complex attribute
I don’t like the idea of our living here.
Complex adverbial modifier of time
Fix everything before my leaving the town.
Complex adverbial modifier of condition
There’s no teaching at school without your loving children.
Complex adverbial modifier of cause
They couldn’t come to an agreement because of his being stubborn.
He felt better for Mary’s having written the letter.
Complex adverbial modifier of attending circumstances
That’s where we can talk without anybody’s hearing.
Complex adverbial modifier of concession
In spite of it being cold, we went for a walk.
Complex adverbial modifier of manner
He was wakened by someone knocking at the door.
Complex adverbial modifier of comparison
She was not sure why it was so awful, even more awful than Hugh’s knowing that she had returned.
INFINITIVE OR GERUND
| NOTE | INFINI-TIVE | VERB | GERUND | NOTE | ||
| = wish, have a desire | I want to have a haircut. | WANT | My hair wants cutting. | = require, be in need of | = to be + Ven The subject | |
| = be under a necessity or obligation | He didn’t need to be remind -ed about it. | NEED | This chapter needs rewriting. | = want, require | of the sen-tence is mostly lifeless. | |
| = demand, insist upon as a right or by authority (often passive) | You are required to be there by nine o’clock. | REQUIRE | This flat requires whitewashing. | = need, depend on for success, fulfillment, etc. | ||
| = intend, have in mind as a purpose or plan; “to have + Ven” is used to denote an action which was not carried out in the past | I meant to leavetomor-row. I meant to have left yesterday but fell ill. | MEAN | This illness will mean going to hospital. It’ll require that treatment. | = signify | ||
| = run that risk, be in a position where one is likely to win | What do we stand to gain by the agreement? | STAND | She can’t stand being kept waiting. | = can’t bear, endure | ||
| = don’t want | I hate to trouble you. | HATE | She hates getting to the theatre late. | = can’t bear, have a strong dislike on/for smth. | ||
| a particular/singular action | I’ d like to go to the South this year. | LIKE PREFER | I like going to the South each year. | = a general/ recurrent action | ||
| = worried, filled with apprehension | She is afraid to wake her husband. He may get angry. | BE AFRAID | She is afraid of waking her husband. He is ill. | = doubtful/anxious about the consequences | ||
| = want to do very much, have a great desire | I am anxious to hear your news. | BE ANXIOUS | I am anxious about leaving Jimmy alone in the house. | = afraid of the consequences | ||
| = attempt, use one’s utmost efforts; “try + to V” is often replaced by “try and + Vinf”, esp. in the Imperative. | Try to behave better.® Try and behave better. | TRY | Try knocking at the back door if nobody hears you at the front door. | = make that experiment and see whether it is satisfactory | ||
| = put an end to the movement or progress of a person, thing, activity for some purpose | We stopped to havea talk. | STOP | We stopped talking. | = cease, give up | ||
| The action of the Infinitive takes place after the act of remembering, forgetting, or regretting. | Remem-ber to close the window. I forgot to close the window before leaving. I regret to inform you that it is impossible. | REMEM-BER FORGET REGRET | Do you remember closing the window before leaving? I shall never forget closing that window. I broke it. I bitterly regret having toldher that. | The action of the Gerund took place before the act of remembering, forgetting, or regretting. | = having + Ven | |
