[Grammar] Why is this sentence incorrect?

[Payal Sharma]

I have seen the below written statement somewhere. There it is said that we should use destroying here in spite of destroy. But i don't understand...why?
The fire spread quickly, destroy three houses within minutes.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Re: Why this sentence is incorrect?

Because the present participle 'destroying' is needed to modify 'fire'.

Not a teacher.

 

[Rover_KE]

Payal Sharma, I have corrected your thread title in post #1. Please note the correct way to ask a question.

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Payal Sharma:

You have already received the answer.

I just wanted to add a few words that may interest you.


"The fire spread quickly. It [the fire] destroyed three houses within minutes."

If you wish to speak and write like that, it's OK.

But native speakers sometimes prefer to combine those two sentences, so they use the -ing form of the verb:

"The fire spread quickly, destroying three houses within minutes."

*****

Look at these two sentences:

"I made sure I had the right number. I phoned again."

A very good book tells us that we can combine those two sentences like this:

"Making sure I had the right number, I phoned again."
"I phoned again, making sure I had the right number."

That book gives this sentence: "She lay awake all night and recalled the events of the day."

If you wanted to shorten that sentence, you could just say: "She lay awake all night, recalling the events of the day."


Source: L.G. Alexander, Longman English Grammar (1988).

 

[Matthew Wai]

"The fire spread quickly, destroying three houses within minutes."
"I phoned again, making sure I had the right number."

'Thus' was omitted before 'destroying'; 'thereby', 'making'.
Am I right or wrong? Not a teacher.

 

[Tdol]

I would say wrong, especially in the second.

 

[Matthew Wai]

If nothing was omitted before the present participle, could the comma before it be omitted?

According to this post, the comma is needed as long as 'thus' or 'thereby' is used/omitted before the present participle. Have I understood it wrongly?

Not a teacher.

 

[TheParser]

'Thus' was omitted before 'destroying'; 'thereby', 'making'.
Am I right or wrong?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Great question!

I will refrain from giving my opinion, for it might be wrong.

But I am 99.99% confident about the following:

"The train fell off the bridge, killing 100 people."

Surely one would refrain from saying: "Killing 100 people, the train fell off the bridge." That would seem to mean that the train killed 100 people.

In fact, it was the ACT of falling off the bridge that killed 100 people.

Thus, one could, indeed, say: "The train fell off the bridge, thus killing 100 people."

Or: "The train fell off the bridge, an act that killed 100 people."

As Professor Curme might say, "killing 100 people" does not actually modify anything. (As I said, it cannot modify "train," for the train did not kill the 100 people.) The great professor gives these examples:

"He mistook me for a friend, so that he caused me some embarrassment."
"He mistook me for a friend, causing me some embarrassment."
"He mistook me for a friend, thus causing me some embarrassment."

The great scholar says that the words after the comma "do not in any way modify the meaning of the principal proposition [statement]."

In plain English, it means -- I think -- that we are actually dealing with two propositions: "He mistook me for a friend, and it caused me some embarrassment."

Source: George Oliver Curme, A Grammar of the English Language, Vol. II, 1931, page 293.

 

[Matthew Wai]

"The train fell off the bridge, thus killing 100 people."

'Someone phoned a nearby hospital, thereby saving 10 people.'
Is 'thereby' used correctly?
Not a teacher.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I have seen the below written statement somewhere. There it is said that we should use destroying here instead of destroy. But i don't understand...why?
The fire spread quickly, destroy three houses within minutes.

Look up "instead" and "in spite."

 

[TheParser]

Is 'thereby' used correctly?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****




Of course, I do not have the confidence to answer your question.

But I did find some information that may interest you.

"The conversation and food were good, _____ making the dinner very pleasant."

According to a highly respected British scholar writing in 1947, one could use either "thus" or "thereby" in that sentence.

Furthermore, he called such a sentence "loose" writing.

He preferred:

"As the conversation and food were good, the dinner was very pleasant."
"The conversation and food were good; consequently the dinner was very pleasant."

-- Eric Partridge, Usage and Abusage / A Guide to Good English (1947, revised in 1957).

*****

Only my opinion: This book was published in 1947. In 2015, I think that more people are willing to accept that "loose" kind of sentence -- especially in speech. In writing, we have time to think and revise, so maybe his "preferred" sentences should be our goal in formal writing.

 

[Payal Sharma]

Look up "instead" and "in spite."

Is use of "in spite" incorrect here?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes. I don't understand Charlie's point here.

 

[Payal Sharma]

Payal Sharma, I have corrected your thread title in post #1. Please note the correct way to ask a question.

Thank you so much. I'll take care of this.

 

[Matthew Wai]

... we should use destroying here in spite of destroy.

Is use of "in spite" incorrect here?

I cannot understand it unless 'instead' is used instead of 'in spite', but I am not a teacher.