-ing: Gerund & Present Participles¶

Present Participles — [1].¶

… after verbs of perception¶

We saw him swimming across the pond.
I watched her painting Sarah’s portrait.
I couldn’t hear her singing because of the noise.
I would like to see you knitting sometime.

…after verbs of movement, action or position¶

… to indicate parallel activities:

She sat looking at the sea.
He walks reading his newspaper.
I cook listening to the radio.
Sally lay listening to the bugs in the grass.

… for two actions at the same time¶

When two actions occur at the same time, and are done by the same person or thing, we can use a present participle to describe one of them. When one action follows very quickly after another done by the same person or thing, we can express the first action with a present participle:

Whistling to himself, he walked down the road. (He whistled to himself as he walked down the road)
They went laughing out into the snow. (They laughed as they went out into the snow)
Dropping the gun, she put her hands in the air. (She dropped the gun and put her hands in the air)
Putting on his coat, he left the house (He put on his coat and left the house)

… as adjectives¶

Did you read that amazing book?
This movie is so exciting!
His economics class is boring.

… with the verbs spend and waste¶

My boss spends two hours a day travelling to work.
Don’t waste time playing computer games!
They’ve spent the whole day shopping.
I wasted money buying this game.

… with the verbs catch and find¶

If I catch you stealing my apples again, there’ll be trouble!
Don’t let him catch you reading his letters.
I caught him going through my bag.
We found some money lying on the ground.
They found their mother sitting in the garden.

… to explain a reason¶

The present participle can be used instead of a phrase starting with as, since, or because. In this usage the participial phrase explains the cause or reason for an action:

Feeling hungry, he went into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
Being poor, he didn’t spend much on clothes.
Knowing that his mother was coming, he cleaned the flat.
He whispered, thinking his brother was still asleep.

Complex Gerund¶

The trouble is his not having taken enough readings.
I know of his (Peter’s) using this method.
The possibility of chemical energy being transformed into electric energy is evident.
The first indication of there being such a particle was given in his paper.
Combustion was incomplete due to insufficient oxygen being present.

Gerund — [1]¶

The gerund always has the same function as a noun, although it looks like a verb. It can be used in the same way as a noun.

Usages of gerund after prepositions and certain specific verbs see below in “something followed by something rules”.

… as the subject of the sentence¶

Eating people is wrong.
Hunting tigers is dangerous.
Flying makes me nervous.
Brushing your teeth is important.
Smoking causes lung cancer.

… as the compliment of the verb to be¶

One of his duties is attending meetings.
The hardest thing about learning English is understanding the gerund.
One of life’s pleasures is having breakfast in bed.

“Tenses” of gerund — [1], [2], [3].¶

Simple/Present¶

Active:

I like swimming.
I regret not calling you.
Not being very good with cars, I asked the mechanic to take a look.
The man driving the car is a friend of mine. (The man who is driving the car is a friend of mine)
Students handing in their essays late will lose ten marks. (Students who hand in their essays late will lose ten marks)

Passive:

She hates being told what to do.
I am tired of being insulted!
Being robbed is an awful experience.
The poem being read by the actor was written by my brother. (The poem that is being read by the actor was written by my brother)
The strawberries being eaten at the wedding were grown in Scotland. (The strawberries that are being eaten at the wedding…).

Past¶

Active:

I am proud of having completed university.
Having gone to college is one of the best things I have ever done.

Passive:

I am still angry about having been fired by her.
Are not you upset about having been lied to?

Fifty shades of gerund — [1], [2], [3], [4]¶

The difference in the usage of gerunds and nouns is simple and obvious:

gerunds must be used without articles and the preposition of: I will start deleting the files.
whereas nouns require an article before and the preposition of after: I will start the deletion of the files.

What is not obvious is when an -ing-ending word is a gerund or a noun. Moreover, adding an article and the preposition often turns a gerund into deverbal noun:

After I finish cleaning the bathroom I’m free to go.
After I finish the cleaning of the bathroom I’m free to go.

To be precise, there is gradation of at least 15 elements between the deverbal noun (e.g. I own 17 paintings) and the present participle in a finite verb phrase (I am painting the cat). From Quirk & Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English:

Some paintings of Brown’s (ie some paintings that Brown owns)
Brown’s paintings of his daughter (ie paintings owned by Brown, depicting his daughter but painted by someone else)
Brown’s paintings of his daughter (ie they depict his daughter and were painted by him)
The painting of Brown is as skilful as that of Gainsborough (ie Brown’s (a) technique of painting or (b) action of painting)
Brown’s deft painting of his daughter is a delight to watch (ie it is a delight to watch while Brown deftly paints his daughter)
Brown’s deftly painting his daughter is a delight to watch ( = [4b] and [5] in meaning)
I dislike Brown’s painting his daughter (ie I dislike either (a) the fact or (b) the way Brown docs it)
I dislike Brown painting his daughter ( = [7a])
I watched Brown painting his daughter (ie: either I watched Brown as he painted or I watched the process of Brown(’s) painting his daughter)
Brown deftly painting his daughter is a delight to watch ( = [4b] and [5])
Painting his daughter, Brown noticed that his hand was shaking (ie while he was painting)
Brown painting his daughter that day, I decided to go for a walk (ie since Brown was painting)
The man painting the girl is Brown (ie who is painting)
The silently painting man is Brown (ie who is silently painting)
He is painting his daughter

Examples 1, 2 and 3 are clearly deverbal nouns. 4 and 5, and possibly 6 are clearly what people would normally call gerunds. 14 is what most people would call a gerundive and 15 is the plain old participle. The rest, to me at least, is a grey area.

Possessive Gerunds — [1]¶

I appreciate your coming here.
He resents Marry’s being promoted.
I am tired of Migel’s complaining.
I need to talk to you about your writing.

**Infinitive vs -ing: having + past participle vs past participle**¶

having + past participle vs past participle¶

Finished with the book, I had a holiday.
Having finished the book, I had a holiday.

Seeing the red light ahead, I slowed down. Progressive participle describes something that the subject of the sentence, (I), was doing at the time the sentence refers to.

Hating to walk, she hailed a taxi. In this case, hate is still a verb that applies at the time of the main action.

Hated by everyone, Bob didn’t have anything to do on his birthday. Here, the subject of the main verb, Bob, isn’t doing the verb in the participle phrase. Bob is described by the participle phrase. It has passive meaning.

Covered in yellow paint, the building cannot be missed. Ditto here, covered has a passive meaning, and it applies at the time of the main action, in other words, it can be said in this way: The building is covered in yellow paint. The building cannot be missed.

In your example above, you cannot say I am finished the book. However, you might say you are finished with the book, so if you really want to use a past participle phrase, you could say: Finished with the book, I had a holiday.

The second sentence in that example (above), it is a progressive participle phrase. You had finished the book. This is essentially creating a progressive participle phrase out of a past or present perfect, and the tense of the ‘separated’ version of that participle is set by the tense of the principal verb:

Having finished the book, I had a holiday.
I had finished the book. I had a holiday.

So, back to your first example. The first version is a perfect use of a perfect participle phrase:

Faced with a bill for $10,000, he has taken an extra job.
He is faced with a bill for $10,000. He has taken an extra job.

The second version introduces having completely unnecessarily. If you really, really want to use having, you need to find a way of putting where you can say He has/had…. The way to do that with the idea of facing this bill would be:

Having been faced with a bill for $10,000, he has taken an extra job.
He has been faced with a bill for $10,000. He has taken an extra job.

Resume. Wiki ¶

-ing:

Ving: Hating to walk, she… — active, expresses the same tense (tense-less?) and refers to the same subject as in the main clause.
V3: Hated by everyone, Bob… — passive, expresses the same tense (tense-less?) and refers to the same subject as in the main clause.
Having + V3: Having won every competition, he decided to retire. — active, expresses tense shifted back relative to the tense in the main clause, refers to the same subject as in the main clause.
Being + V3: The poem being read by the actor was written by my brother. — passive, expresses the same tense (tense-less?).
Having been + V3: Having been hunted close to extinction, the rhino is once again common in this area. — passive, tense shifted backward.

Infinitive:

She plans to invite them. — active, tense is unchanged.
He pretended to have seen the film. — active, tense shifted backward.
They expect to be invited. — passive, the same tense.
I am happy to have been invited. — passive, tense shifted backward.