When using the suggestion 'What about going' with 'shopping' or 'bowling', I'm guessing that 'going dancing/going bowling' is out of the question. Correct me if I'm wrong. I imagine that teaching the kids 'going bowling' would cause them to giggle endlessly... My little neighbors giggle at almost anything
However, that will not stop me...
I hope to be a teacher soon, however there are some things that have to be ironed out...![]()
People go bowling or shopping or dancing all of the time.
Did you not understand my question or did I not understand your answer?
I asked whether +ing such as bowlING can follow a +ing, as in 'What about goING bowlING. I do have a tendency not to be clear enough (sth else I'm working on).
If the fault was mine, please, do forgive me, and answer my question...
Last edited by lil'changeling; 22-Jun-2011 at 21:13. Reason: correct my mistake
What about going bowling/going dancing are natural and commonplace.
Rover
What about going bowling?
What about going shopping?
What about going travelling?
They're all absolutely fine.
I'd probably say "How about going bowling?" if I was proposing the activity.
You are, as it happens, since 'going shopping/bowling/fishing/dancing/skateboarding/...' are all fine, but your caution is understandable, given the fact that natives do avoid certain types of '-ing -ing' combination. Essentially, however, it is only where an alternative to the second -ing form exists (normally an infinitive), so that we do not say e.g.
*It was just starting raining.
since it is possible - without loss of meaning or naturalness - to rephrase this as
It was just starting to rain.
Where, however, no viable structural alternative exists, e.g.
I really wasn't enjoying being with them.
there is generally no problem.