[Grammar] A question on nouns followed by gerunds.

[murat_turkey]

Good afternoon everyone.

Are the below examples correct?

I was in the corner of the room thinking about my exam results.
There are fans inside the stadium watching the football-match.


Should I use to-infinitive instead?

 

[Rover_KE]

No. The examples are correct.

Use the infinitive to indicate the purpose of going there.

I went to the corner of the room to think about my exam results.
The fans went to the stadium to watch the football-match.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Also keep in mind that gerunds are always nouns:

- The washing is almost done.
- The only thing I love more than eating is sleeping.
- The walking was easy, but all that running exhausted me.

 

[emsr2d2]

There is no hyphen in "football match".

 

[GoesStation]

There is no hyphen in "football match".

Unless it's being used as an adjective, which is possible but not very likely. For example, Football-match injury numbers fell for the third year in a row.

 

[murat_turkey]

No. The examples are correct.

Use the infinitive to indicate the purpose of going there.

I went to the corner of the room to think about my exam results.
The fans went to the stadium to watch the football-match.

Would it be correct to use the preposition by before the gerund in the below example or is it not required? Do these sentences have different meaning?

• She always avoids her children by watching football on the couch.
• She always avoids her children watching football on the couch.

 

[emsr2d2]

Would it be correct to use the preposition by before the gerund in the below example or is it not required? Do these sentences have different meaning?

• She always avoids her children by watching football on the couch.
• She always avoids her children watching football on the couch.

They have completely different meanings.

The first means "In order to avoid her children, she watches football on the couch".
The second means "When her children are watching football on the couch, she avoids them (her children)".

 

[emsr2d2]

I should have added that "She always avoids her children watching football on the couch" is not a natural sentence. It's possible that you mean "She always avoids allowing her children to watch football on the couch".