Korean Job Discussion Forums

[spaceman]

Greetings,

This:
1
We can hear the song of the birds and the sounds of rain in the "Spring" music. In the "Summer" music, we hear bees hum, water run and soft winds blowing.

Or this:
2
We can hear the song of the birds and the sounds of rain in the "Spring" music. In the "Summer" music, we hear bees humming, water running and soft winds blowing.

And why?

Cheers

[crisdean]

Now I'm no grammar expert, heck I wouldn't even call myself adept, but basically you're asking if it's grammatically correct to mix simple and continuous (or progressive) tenses. ::edit:: fixed my own horrible grammar

I would be inclined to say no (again not an expert), and that either all the verbs should be simple (ie no 'ing') or they should all be continuous (ie all should have 'ing') hence I think 2 is better than 1, however were I to try and communicate what you're trying to say I would say it this way:

We can hear the song of the birds and the sound of rain in the "Spring" music. In the "Summer" music, we hear bees hum, water run and soft winds blow.

[shcforward]

Even though they were both obviously written by a Korean - the "we can (verb)" construction is way too common here - the second one is better. The verbs in the second sentence match - they are all -ing form.

[blackjack]

[edwardcatflap]

Generally this structure

'I hear bees hum'

suggests the activity you hear has a beginning and an end, while this structure

'I hear bees humming' , suggests you hear just a part of the activity.

Thus 'I watched the boys play football' means you saw the whole match, while 'I watched the boys playing football', you leave before the end or arrive after the beginning.

In this context of summer sounds, the present participle or ...ing form would seem to be more appropriate

[spaceman]

It's in their forthcoming test.
They have a choice between "hum" and "humming," and "run" and "running," or whichever verb variant they deem appropriate. They get "blowing" regardless.

Thanks for your thoughts.

(edit: sp)

[MattAwesome]

both are kind of strange, but i would choose number 1. just because it keeps the tense of the sentence consistent. dont mix tenses.

[jugbandjames]

[jugbandjames]

On second glance, they're both incorrect because they use quotation marks for something that isn't a direct quote, and they capitalize names of seasons.

[spaceman]

"Spring" and "Summer" are the names of pieces of music.

[edwardcatflap]

[spaceman]

The test gives them the root form of the two verbs in ellipses and asks them to write in the correct verbs.

I think maybe the point was something like:

I hear him crying.
I hear him cry.

"Hear" functions like a state of being.

[jugbandjames]

Ah, songs, that makes sense.


It's testing for parallel structure. Since you're coordinating three objects, they need to have the same structure, or be the same type of thing. So, the first one is incorrect.

[edwardcatflap]

Ok let's take another example.

Do you think these two sentences have the same meaning?

Yesterday I saw you walking to the shops

Yesterday I saw you walk to the shops

If so, imagine a boy going to an art gallery to see a famous painting and the next day his mother asks him what he saw in the painting. He replies

'In the painting, I saw a man fighting a dragon.'

'In the painting, I saw a man fight a dragon.'

The second one sounds wrong doesn't it? If they both sound ok to you I give up, but the first one sounds correct to me because of the unfinished nature of the activity.

[jugbandjames]

There are certainly situations where the -ing form is progressive and the infinitive is simple. That's why I said it allows for both meanings. Although, I misspoke when I said the aspect and situation is the same for both forms. I should have said "The aspect and situation can be the same for both forms."

In this situation, the main verb is hear, and the object + -ing/inf is "bees hum", "water run", "winds blow". We don't know whether the author means to convey that the hearing encompasses the whole course of action of the bees humming, water running, and winds blowing, or if the hearing ceased before those actions completed.

Both, however, are grammatically acceptable. I don't think the OP has the original test question verbatim though, so it's difficult to tell what they are testing for. Assuming the question appears as is, the first has a parallel structure error and the second is grammatically acceptable.