Hi everyone!
i would like to know what the difference between these two sentences below is :
A- The thieves admitted having stolen the money.
B- The thieves admitted stealing the money.
and what are the rules of it?
Thanks from now...:up:
***NOT A TEACHER***As I type, no teacher has answered yet. May I try? (1) Good news, dosojin. Both sentences mean about the same. (2) This is NOT my opinion. (3) This comes from A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, a book used by MANY teachers. (4) It says that after verbs such as "admit," "remember," "regret," etc., it usually doesn't matter whether you use the PRESENT GERUND ("stealing") or the PERFECT GERUND ("having stolen"). They both mean about the same. (5) BUT --sometimes it does make a difference!!!(6) "I regret not BEING at his side" = I am talking about NOW. He's in the hospital, for example, but I am too busy to be with him; "I regret not HAVING BEEN at his side" = I regret TODAY that I was not at his side LAST WEEK. He asked me to visit, but I told him that I was too busy. Today I feel very bad about that decision. Thank you & have a nice day.