Nouns followed by a gerund and not a preposition

[Maked]

Hello everyone,

In my book of C1 I've come across this:


"My ambition is to become a teacher" (OK. I have no problems here), and "My worry is not being good enough to pass".
Why is it like that? Can you give me other examples of a noun followed by a gerund? I've never found an explanation to this. The only thing I've ever heard about this is that SOME nouns take an infinitive... Maybe the nouns with an infinitive tend to refer to "plans", "decisions" or something of that sort?


In the case of worry, I think we could use both forms: "my worry is to work as much as I can" (I make an effort); "My worry is working too much" (I fear it)


Also, could we say "My fear is going/to go blind?"


Please, help me with this. I'll really appreciate it.

 

[emsr2d2]

"My worry is to work as much as I can" doesn't make sense. "My worry" means "The thing that worries me". Working as much as you can sounds like an ambition or a plan.

 

[Maked]

Re: Nouns followed by a gerund and not an infinitive

Thanks a lot for your help.

I still have doubts about this. Any other ideas and examples, please? Right now I can't come up with more.

By the way, I made a mistake with the title of the thread: it should be "Nouns followed by a gerund and not an infinitive".

 

[Skrej]

Re: Nouns followed by a gerund and not an infinitive

Cross posted here, where you received a detailed answer just a few hours after posting it here. Cross posting wastes everyone's time.

I was also going to suggest some of the same pages linked in that answer, so I'll simply refer you back to that response on the other forum.

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: Nouns followed by a gerund and not an infinitive

Maked, there is nothing to stop you posting the same question on multiple forums. However, if you do so, please make it clear on each forum that you are asking the same question elsewhere. If you receive responses on one forum, have the decency to tell the other forums what responses you have received and, if appropriate, why you are not satisfied with those responses.

 

[Tarheel]

Well, the word "not" is not a noun.

Are you worried that you won't pass the test?

 

[Maked]

Nouns followed by a gerund and not an infinitive

Thank you everyone for taking your time to read my post and I apologize if I've made a mistake, but I wanted to see the answer as soon as possible and I wasn't sure if anybody would give me an answer, and I also wanted to see more opinions. What's wrong with that? I mean, you say that this makes people waste their time, but this is optional. That's why I'm very thankful to the ones who have stopped to think about my problem. And emsr2d2, if you notice, I published the same topic on other forums before getting any kind of answer, so I couldn't say "I've received this answer in another forum....".

Tarheel, obviously "not" isn't a noun. Are you being disrespectful or is it just a feeling that I have?

 

[Tarheel]

I can't copy and paste with this device. I do know that the phrase "not being good enough to pass" does not contain a noun followed by a gerund.

What did they tell you on the other forum?

 

[GoesStation]

I can't copy and paste with this device.

If it's an Android device, long-tap the text you want to copy and select "Copy" (or the icon indicating that -- you might have to experiment to find the right one.) Tap the place you want to insert the copied text, then long-tap there and select "Paste" from the pop-up menu. I think this works in iOS, too.

 

[Maked]

Sorry Tarheel if I misunderstood you before.

Well, I could infer from what I was told on that forum that it's something that is actually quite simple. I've seen it before, but I didn't remember it while I was going crazy over the two sentences... "Becoming/To become a teacher is my ambition" is the same as "My ambition is to become/becoming a teacher". In a copulative sentence with these elements, when the noun clause is used as the object or the subject, there are the two possibilities: an infinitive or a gerund.

However, I don't understand why I've found then in books that "after a noun you find the following nouns...." or "the infinitive is used after some nouns". DO you understand what I mean? Maybe it's far less complicated than what I think.

Would you really say: "My worry is not to be good enough"?

Thank you again for your interest and your help.

 

[Tarheel]

Perhaps:

My worry is that I won't be good enough.

(The other one doesn't work.)

 

[Maked]

Perhaps:

My worry is that I won't be good enough.

(The other one doesn't work.)

Thank you again.

Yes, I didn't know why, but it didn't sound quite right to me either.