Starting a sentence with a gerund or infinitive.

Ryan. · Jan 11, 2014

I am trying to rephrase the following sentence in the form of sentences A and B. Which one is grammatical and more idiomatic?
"I gathered more information and took many factors into account to narrow down the available possibilities."

A-"To narrow down the available possibilities, I gathered more information and took many factors into account"
B-"Narrowing down the available possibilities, I gathered more information and took many factors into account"

Thanks a lot.

Barb_D · Jan 11, 2014

If the reason you gathered the information was to narrow the possibilities, use the first.

The second suggest you narrowed before you started to gather.

MikeNewYork · Jan 11, 2014

Ryan. said:
I am trying to rephrase the following sentence in the form of sentences A and B. Which one is grammatical and more idiomatic?
"I gathered more information and took many factors into account to narrow down the available possibilities."

A-"To narrow down the available possibilities, I gathered more information and took many factors into account"
B-"Narrowing down the available possibilities, I gathered more information and took many factors into account"

Thanks a lot.

In your sentence B, "narrowing" is a participle, not a gerund.

Ryan. · Jan 11, 2014

MikeNewYork said:
In your sentence B, "narrowing" is a participle, not a gerund.

Thanks a lot. Could you give me some more information about the difference of them?

MikeNewYork · Jan 11, 2014

Ryan. said:
Thanks a lot. Could you give me some more information about the difference of them?

Both present participles and gerunds are -ing forms of verbs. Gerunds are used as nouns, present participles are used as modifiers. There is a lot of information available on the Internet if you Google those words.

Starting a sentence with a gerund or infinitive.

Ryan.

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