Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

Hope everyone survived Halloween.

I need to know which sentence in each pair below is correct and the reason.

1.
(a) I teach him to swim.
(b) I teach him swimming.

2.
(a) He teaches his students to play the piano.
(b) He teaches his students playing the piano.


The first pair
I think 1(a) is correct because a grammar source states that "teach"
is followed by "object + to infinitive". Is it only a matter of "knowing" which form can follow that verb? However, if I think of "swimming" as a "subject," it almost sounds as if (b) could be possible as well. (As in "I teach him music.")

The second pair
Again, I think 2(a) is correct. For (b) to be correct, I think it would have to be: He teaches the students playing the piano. (to say which students he teaches) I think it might be possible to make a situation in which (b) could be used, but it would be extremely forced.

Thanks for any comments - especially on my line of thinking to support
1(b).

[edwardcatflap]

They're all correct grammatically as you can use the structure 'teach someone to do something' or 'teach someone something'. Therefore you can also use the gerund 'teach someone ...ing'.

However some of them sound more natural than others. 1b sounds natural, as with swimming, the gerund is normally used to describe the subject, not the noun. We wouldn't say, 'I've got swim lessons', so we also wouldn't say 'he's teaching me swim.' In part two we would normally use the noun to describe the subject e.g. 'I've got piano lessons', 'He's teaching me (the) piano' so the gerund sounds clumsy.

[YTMND]

1.

(a) I teach him to swim.

What do you teach him? Why do you need to teach him in order for you to swim?

(b) I teach him swimming.

Oh I see, how is his "swimming" coming along?


2.

(a) He teaches his students to play the piano.

What does he teach his students? Why does he need to teach his students in order for him to play the piano?

(b) He teaches his students playing the piano.

What does he teach while he is playing the piano?

In the above examples, I would add "how to". This helps avoid confusion.