hamstring + a gerund

[Mehrgan]

Hi,

Is the following sentence correct?


The outbreak of the virus has practically hamstrung the officials' making new decisions.


My question is if the verb 'hamstring' is referring to 'making'.

 

[GoesStation]

Where did you find this sentence, and who wrote it?

 

[Mehrgan]

It's my sentence. I was wondering if the gerund structure is used correctly (as well as the other parts of the sentence of course!).

 

[jutfrank]

No, it's not correct. The problem is with the underlined part.

What's your goal here?

 

[Rover_KE]

It's my sentence.

In that case , your opening question of post #1 should have been 'Is the following sentence of mine correct?'

This would have made it unnecessary for us to have to ask for the source.

 

[Mehrgan]

Thanks for spending your time and replying to the post.

Hope nobody takes this personal, but it's been a while I find it very hard to share my problems and receiving the right feedback here around.

I may have made mistakes posting my questions correctly or following the exact rules of the site and I'm not proud of this, but what I can feel is a little bit of impatience on the side of posters, whom I have DEEPEST RESPECT for. Most of my questions have been treated like I'm taking advantage of the page or something.

Well, you do have our gratitude for all the help you provide. But, the problem is English is not our native language, and we're bound to make mistakes when trying to get our point across.

Thanks, again, for your kind posts.

 

[Phaedrus]

I was wondering if the gerund structure is used correctly (as well as the other parts of the sentence of course!).

You haven't used a gerund structure.

The outbreak of the virus has practically hamstrung the officials' making new decisions.

A gerund is a verbal noun, but "making new decisions" is a verb phrase. If you used a gerund, the sentence would be OK:

The outbreak of the virus has practically hamstrung the making of new decisions by officials.

However, I would find the following more natural:

The outbreak of the virus has practically hamstrung the officials' ability to make new decisions.

 

[Mehrgan]

You haven't used a gerund structure.



A gerund is a verbal noun, but "making new decisions" is a verb phrase. If you used a gerund, the sentence would be OK:

The outbreak of the virus has practically hamstrung the making of new decisions by officials.

However, I would find the following more natural:

The outbreak of the virus has practically hamstrung the officials' ability to make new decisions.

Thanks. Now I get it. My poor understanding was that all verbs with an -ing would make a gerund.