Page 87 - Advanced English Grammar in Use

V e r b + - i n g

Some verbs must have an object before an -ing form:

• The police found the man climbing the wall. Other verbs like this include catch, discover,
• She overheard them talking about the feel, hear, leave, notice, observe, see, spot,
closure of the factory. watch
Notice, however, that this is not the case when these verbs are in the passive:
• The man was found climbing the wall.
D Some verbs can have an object or no object before an -ing form:

• They can't stand (him) driving his old car. Other verbs like this include detest, dislike,
• I remember (you) buying that jumper. dread, envisage, hate, imagine, like, love,
mind (in questions and negatives), miss,
recall, regret, resent, risk, start, stop

; #* ^Some verbs can't have an object before an -ing form:

• Despite his injury he continued playing. Other verbs like this include admit, advise,
• I actually enjoy cleaning shoes. It's relaxing! consider, delay, deny, deserve, escape, face,
finish, forget, propose, put off, suggest

Some of the verbs in В and С (admit, deny, forget, recall, regret, remember) can be followed by
having + past participle instead of the -ing form, with little difference in meaning:
• He remembered having arrived at the party, but not leaving, (or He remembered arriving...)
• I now regret having bought the car. (or I now regret buying...)

These pairs of sentences have the same meaning:
• I resented Tom winning the prize. and • I resented Tom's winning the prize.
• Mary recalled him borrowing the book, and • Mary recalled his borrowing the book.
Other verbs that can be followed by an object with a possessive and then an -ing form include
verbs of '(dis)liking' such as detest, disapprove of, dislike, hate, like, love, object to, and verbs of
'thinking' such as envisage, forget, imagine, remember, think of. Notice that we can only use a
possessive form (Tom's, his) like this to talk about a person or a group of people:
• I remembered the horse winning the race, (but not ...the horse's winning...)
The possessive form in this pattern is usually considered to be rather formal.

A few verbs (feel, hear, notice, observe, overhear, see, watch) can be followed either by an -ing
form or a bare infinitive, but the meaning may be slightly different:

an -ing form a bare infinitive
suggests that the action is repeated or happens suggests that the action happens only once
eover a period of time. • I noticed him throw a sweet wrapper on
• # Did you hear those dogs barking most of the night? the floor, so I asked him to pick it up.
suggests that we watch, etc. some of the action, suggests that we watch, hear, etc. the whole
but not from start to finish action from its start to its finish
• I was able to watch them building the new • I watched him climb through the
car park from my office window. window, and then I called the police.

Verb + bare infinitive; Verb + to-infinitive or -ing? = Possessives =