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Thread: Which is correct, please?

  1. #1
    hoangkha is offline Member
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    Default Which is correct, please?

    Hi!
    She is working as a dental assistant. What she does is....... people's teeth.

    c. cleaning
    d. to clean

  2. #2
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    jmacdonald is offline Newbie
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    Default Re: Which is correct, please?

    Neither. It should be "What she does is clean people's teeth."
    5jj, Raymott, emsr2d2 and 1 others like this.

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    bhtr88 is offline Newbie
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    Default Re: Which is correct, please?

    Quote Originally Posted by jmacdonald View Post
    Neither. It should be "What she does is clean people's teeth."
    Hi jmacdonald! You really puzzled me. I was sure that gerund should be used in this kind of sentences. Could you please provide more details. What kind of grammatical construction is this?

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Which is correct, please?

    What she is doing is cleaning people's teeth. (That would really only work if you were talking about what she is actually physically doing at the same time as you are speaking.)

    What she does is clean people's teeth. (A general description of her job.)
    Remember - correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing make posts much easier to read.

  5. #5
    alenjones23 is offline Newbie
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    Default Re: Which is correct, please?

    I think the correct one would be "She is working as a dental assistant. What she does is clean people's teeth."

  6. #6
    hoangkha is offline Member
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    Default Re: Which is correct, please?

    Quote Originally Posted by jmacdonald View Post
    Neither. It should be "What she does is clean people's teeth."
    Thank you.
    I'm sorry. The full sentence is
    - He is working as dental assistant. What she does is... people's teeth
    a. clean
    b. cleans
    c. cleaning
    d. to clean

    I have just found this.
    According to PEU by Micheal Swan.
    Expressions like All I did was, What I do is etc can be followed by an infinitive without to.
    - All I did was (to) give him a little push.
    - What a fire-door does is (to) delay the spread of a fire.

  7. #7
    Natalie1991 is offline Newbie
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    Default Re: Which is correct, please?

    Quote Originally Posted by jmacdonald View Post
    Neither. It should be "What she does is clean people's teeth."
    This is correct.

    "What she does is clean people's teeth"

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