What tense of verb directly after 'hence' is correct if I don't want to use a complete phrase.
hence + 'infinitive'?
hence + gerunde?
Welcome to the forum.
Can you give an example of what you want to say? I can't at the moment think of any situation in which I'd use any form of a verb after 'hence'.
Context is always important; labelling is rarely important.
*NOT A TEACHER*
Hello,
-The vet said it is an old break and has healed, hence being crooked!
-Metrolink rattled the bridge, hence rattling my camera, hence the bad frame.
I think he would like to ask whether we can use it like that or not:
-The vet said it is an old break and has healed, hence to be crooked!
I wouldn't use any of those examples.
The vet said it is an old break which has healed, hence it is crooked.
The vet said it is an old break which has healed, hence the leg is crooked.
Metrolink rattled the bridge (I don't really know what this means but I'll leave it anyway), which rattled my camera. Hence, the picture was blurred.
Last edited by emsr2d2; 21-Jan-2012 at 13:51. Reason: typo
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
(1) As the other posters have told you, one uses neither an infinitive nor a gerund after the adverb "hence."
(2) If you will check any good dictionaries on the Web, you will find sentences that show you the correct use of this word.
(3) Sometimes it means "therefore":
You have questions about English; hence, you come to usingenglish.com.
(4) Sometimes, "from this source":
She grew up in Colorado; hence her interest in mountain climbing. [Colorado has many mountains.] This sentence is credited to A Dictionary of Modern American Usage by Mr. Bryan A. Garner.
(5) Sometimes, "from now":
Ten months hence, Americans will elect a president.
*****
I did find this archaic (super old) example of "hence" when it means "from here":
Hence, be gone!
I guess that it means something like "Leave this place!"
Source: The New Oxford American Dictionary.
P.S. Please remember: do not speak/write like this in the year 2012. People will think that you are weird (strange)!
I'm in perfect agreement with The Parser. You could use hence in academic writing according to definition n.3 and 4.in The Parser's post.
It was one of those words which I found very difficult to come to grips with too!
Online corpora databases often help to figure out when, how and where to use such difficult items as "Hence". You'll want to be a very good observer though!
The usage (with the gerund) exists - doesn't it? Though I would prefer (and recommend) expressions like 'The new law made it easier for <whatever>, thus making it necessary to...' or 'The new law made it easier for <whatever>, and so made it necessary to...', I've met (particularly from the mouth of a pompous ass
) 'The new law made it easier for <whatever>, hence making it necessary to...' (In fact that sort of grandiloquent buffoon would probably say something like 'The newly-enacted legislation facilitated <whatever> hence necessitating...'. I'd think it sounded ridiculous, but not seriously incorrrect.)
b
There is no inherent connection of any kind between a conjunct adverb, such as 'hence', and a verb-form. If your query was inspired by a sentence such as
My driver got stuck in traffic on the way here, hence delaying my arrival by about half and hour.
the 'hence' is no more than a word serving to establish a causal link between the main clause (My...traffic) and the subsequent summative modifier 'delaying...hour', meaning 'and this, therefore, delayed....'