68. –ing clauses (Feeling tired, I went to bed early.) ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE FOR INTERMEDIATE

                                                     ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE FOR INTERMEDIATE

68. –ing clauses (Feeling tired, I went to bed early.)

A	Study these situations: Joe was playing football. He hurt his knee. You can say: ·         Joe hurt his knee playing football. You were feeling tired. So you went to bed early. You can say: ·         Feeling tired, I went to bed early. 'Playing football' and 'feeling tired' are -ing clauses. If the -ing clause is at the beginning of the sentence (as in the second example), we write a comma (,) after it.
B	When two things happen at the same time, you can use an -ing clause: ·         Kate is in the kitchen making coffee. (=she is in the kitchen and she is making coffee) ·         A man ran out of the house shouting. (= he ran out of the house and he was shouting) ·         Do something! Don't just stand there doing nothing! We also use -ing when one action happens during another action. We use -ing for the longer action: ·         Joe hurt his knee playing football. (=while he was playing) ·         Did you cut yourself shaving? (=while you were shaving) You can also use -ing after while or when: ·         Joe hurt his knee while playing football. ·         Be careful when crossing the road. (= when you are crossing)
C	When one action happens before another action, we use having (done) for the first action: ·         Having found a hotel, we looked for somewhere to have dinner. ·         Having finished her work, she went home. You can also say after -ing: ·         After finishing her work, she went home. If one short action follows another short action, you can use the simple -ing form (doing instead of having done) for the first action: ·         Taking a key out of his pocket, he opened the door. These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.
D	You can use an -ing clause to explain something, or to say why somebody does something. The -ing clause usually comes at the beginning of the sentence: ·         Feeling tired, I went to bed early. (= because I felt tired) ·         Being unemployed, he doesn't have much money. (= because he is unemployed) ·         Not having a car, she finds it difficult to get around. (= because she doesn't have a car) Use having (done) for something that happened before something else: ·         Having already seen the film twice, I didn't want to see it again. (=because I had already seen it twice) These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.

EXERCISES

68.1	Choose from Box A and Box B to make sentences. Use an -ing clause. A B 1 Kate was in the kitchen. She was trying not to make a noise. 2 Amy was sitting in an armchair. She looked at the sights and took pictures. 3 Sue opened the door carefully. She said she would be back in an hour. 4 Sarah went out. She was reading a book. 5 Lisa was in London for two years. She was making coffee. 6 Anna walked around the town. She worked in a bookshop. 1 ____Kate was in the kitchen making coffee. _______________ 2 Amy was sitting______________________________________________ 3 Sue ______________________________________________ 4 ______________________________________________ 5 ______________________________________________ 6 ______________________________________________
68.2	Make one sentence from two using an -ing clause. 1 Joe was playing football. He hurt his knee. ____Joe hurt his knee playing football.______ 2 I was watching TV. I fell asleep. I _________________________ 3 A friend of mine slipped and fell. He was getting off a bus. A friend of mine_________________________ 4 I was walking home in the rain. I got very wet. I_________________________ 5 Laura was driving to work yesterday. She had an accident. _________________________ 6 Two people were overcome by smoke. They were trying to put out the fire. _________________________
68.3	Make sentences beginning Having .... Put the words in the correct order. 1 (went /she /work /her /home /finished) Having ____finished her work, she went home._______ 2 (tickets /the theatre /bought /into /our /went /we) Having ________________________________ 3 (journey /their /had /they /lunch /continued) Having________________________________ 4 (the /coffee /shopping /I /a cup /went /done /for /of) Having________________________________
68.4	Make one sentence from two. Begin with -ing or Not -ing (like the examples in Section D). Sometimes you need to begin with Having (done something). 1 I felt tired. So I went to bed early. ____Feeling tired,_____ I went to bed early. 2 I thought they might be hungry. So I offered them something to eat. ______________________ , I offered them something to eat. 3 Robert is a vegetarian. So he doesn't eat any kind of meat. ______________________, Robert doesn't eat any kind of meat. 4 I didn't know his email address. So I wasn't able to contact him. ______________________, I wasn't able to contact him. 5 Sarah has travelled a lot. So she knows a lot about other countries. ______________________, Sarah knows a lot about other countries. 6 I wasn't able to speak the local language. So I had trouble communicating. ______________________, I had trouble communicating. 7 We had spent nearly all our money. So we couldn't afford to stay at a hotel. ______________________, we couldn't afford to stay at a hotel.

ANSWER KEY