SECTION 8.

2
THE ‘-ING’ FORM

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 GOALS OF SECTION 8.2

Identify different ways of

using the ‘-ing’ form

Compare the difference

between the infinitive and the
‘-ing’ form
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   Active Passive
Present “–ing (not) asking (not) being
form” asked
present --- ---
progressive
1. THE ‘-ING’ “–ing form”

FORM perfect or past

“–ing form”
(not) having
asked
(not) having
been asked
perfect/ past --- ---
progressive
“–ing form”

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   Active Passive

Present I hate asking I hate being asked

“–ing form” people their age. my age.

present --- ---

EXAMPLE progressive “–
ing form”
S perfect or past I’m proud of I disliked having
“–ing form” having completed been ignored.
the race.

perfect/ past --- ---

progressive
“–ing form”
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 2. FUNCTIONS OF THE ‘-ING’ FORM
Gerund as Examples
Verb_ing She is playing with her children.
(Continuous They were having dinner at this time yesterday.
Tenses)
Adjectives It is the most famous shopping mall.
She is an amazing girl.
Nouns My favorite sport is swimming. (subject complement)
Swimming is good for health. (subject)
My sister enjoys swimming. (object)
Her classmates are excellent at swimming. (object of preposition)

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3. VERBS FOLLOWED BY THE ‘-ING’ FORM

Verb Examples
avoid She avoids meeting her mom.
admit The boy admitted stealing money.
consider, deny, dislike, enjoy, fancy, feel like, finish, give up,
imagine, involve, keep on, go on, carry on, mind, miss,
practice, put off, risk, etc.

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 Verb/ Phrase
After preposition
be used to/ get used to/ be
accustomed to
It’s no good,
It’s no use
It’s worth
It’s (just) not worth
4. PHRASES There’s no point in
What’s the use/ point of
FOLLOWED BY There’s nothing worse than
THE ‘-ING’ FORMcan’t help, can’t bear, can’t stand
have fun
have a good time
have trouble
have difficulty
have a problem
spend time/money
waste time/money
find noun/ pronoun + V_ing
go + V_ing
(sports, activities)
Examples
He left the restaurant without paying.
She got used to living in a big city.
It’s no good trying to persuade me. You won’t succeed.
It’s no use worrying about what happened. There’s nothing you can
do about it.
It’s a nice town. It’s worth spending a few days there.
Our flight was very early in the morning, so it wasn’t worth going to
bed.
There’s no point in having a car if you never use it.
What is the use/ point of having a car if you never use it?
There’s nothing worse than feeling ill in a strange place.
She can’t help laughing when she saw it.
I can’t stand waiting for buses.
We had great fun comparing our baby photographs.
 
I had no trouble finding a place to stay.
People sometimes have difficulty reading my writing.
Did you have a problem getting a visa?
He spent hours trying to repair the clock.
I waste a lot of time doing nothing.
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Men always found her extremely attractive.
go sailing, go swimming, go fishing, go riding, go hiking, go surfing,
go scuba diving, go skiing, go jogging, go camping
   Verbs Examples
watch She watched him enter the building.
(I saw the complete action from start to finish.)
She watched him entering the building.

perception
Verbs of
(I saw him in the middle of doing something)

see, look at, notice, observe, hear, listen to, feel, smell, catch, etc.
THE
INFINITIVE Adjectives It’s difficult to speak English well.
It’s difficult speaking English well.
 
VS It was pleasant to lie in the sun.
It was pleasant lying in the sun.

THE ‘-ING start

Verbs followed by to-infinitive and gerund (same meaning)
It started raining.

FORM’ begin It started to rain.

It’s starting to rain. (not usually It’s starting raining.)
continue It continues raining.
It continues to rain.
intend John intends buying a house.
John intends to buy a house.
bother Don’t bother locking the door. 8

Don’t bother to lock the door.

 THE INFINITIVE VS THE ‘-ING’ FORM (CONT.)
Verbs followed by to-infinitive and gerund (different meanings)
  to-infinitive gerund (V_ing)
remember = do not forget to do something = have a memory of something
Remember to save your work often, just in case your I remember meeting her once. It must have
computer crashes. been five years ago.
 
regret = I am sorry that I have to say = something which happened in the past
British Airways regret to announce the cancellation I have always regretted not having studied hard
of flight. at school.
go on = do something new = continue
After discussing the economy, the president went on The president paused for a moment and then
to talk about foreign policy. went on talking.
try = make an effort to do something = do it as an experiment 
I tried to move the table, but it was too heavy. (so I I didn’t like the way the furniture was arranged,
couldn’t move it.) so I tried moving the table to the other side of
the room. (=I moved it to see if it looked
better.)
need = active meaning = passive meaning 9

My dad needs to fix the chair. The chair needs fixing.

 
 STRUCTURES WITH THE ‘-ING’ FORM
1. Two actions at the same time

2. One action, then another action

3. Explaining why

4. Preposition + ‘-ing’

5. Linking words + ‘-ing’

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1. Two actions at the same time
a. Last Friday night, Jim Hunt drove home from work thinking about the quiet
weekend ahead.
b. But then, travelling past Tenbury Hill, he had the strangest experience of his life.
c. Then he saw a brightly lit object flying slowly across the road.
d. He watched it coming down to land between the road and the hill to his left.

2. One action, then another action

e. Taking his camera out of the glove box, he got out of the car.
f. Having shut the car door quietly and carefully, he turned to start walking
towards the object, which was still brightly lit.

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3. Explaining why
a. Being a scientist, Jim wanted to find out more about this strange thing.
b. Having refused to believe in UFOs all his life, he felt there must be some other, simple
explanation.
4. Preposition + ‘-ing’
c. Despite feeling sure that the object was not a UFO, Jim could not think what else it might be.
d. On getting nearer, he began recording comments as well as taking photos.
e. Then, suddenly, the thing took off again without making any noise at all.
5. Linking words + ‘-ing’
f. After climbing slowly to about 100 meters, the object shot away to the north-east at high
speed.
g. Before calling the police, Jim ran the last few meters to where it had been just 30 seconds
before.
h. Although expecting to find nothing there, he actually found burnt marks on the grass.
i. “Perhaps it really was a UFO,” he thought to himself while calling 999 for the police. 12
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