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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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 Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:22 pm Post subject: Grammar question |
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Why is it that...
(1)"Brushing my teeth is the first thing I do in the morning."
...is ok, but...
(2)"The first thing I do in the morning is brushing my teeth."
...is not?
I was about to tell some students who wrote (2) that they couldn't use the 'ing' form, 'brushing', when I realised that I couldn't explain why. On the surface (1) and (2) look structurally alike, but something's going on underneath the surface, I think.
For comparison:
"The first thing (that) I do in the morning is (that) (I) brush my teeth."
"The first thing (that) I do in the morning is to brush my teeth."
Anyway, I usually spend all my time teaching the basics not stuff like this, so I submit this one to the Dave's collective ubermind! Can anyone help? |
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spyro25
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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| (1)"Brushing my teeth is the first thing I do in the morning." |
this doesnt exactly sound right either. would you ever talk like this?
you should say 'the first thing i do in the morning is brush my teeth'. the present simple tense is used to describe things that are usually or always true, such as this statement. your students should use this construction for now. |
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daskalos
Joined: 19 May 2006
Location: The Road to Ithaca
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:38 pm Post subject: |
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Because in 1), "brushing my teeth" is a noun phrase (brushing in this case being a gerund) serving as the subject of the sentence.
In 2), "brush[ing] my teeth" is a verb phrase and needs to agree with the verb of the clause used as the subject. That is, "I do" needs to agree with "brush." If you rewrote it to say, "The first thing I'll be doing in the morning ...," it would then take "brushing."
At least this is how I parse it. |
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Hanson
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:20 am Post subject: |
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| daskalos wrote: |
Because in 1), "brushing my teeth" is a noun phrase (brushing in this case being a gerund) serving as the subject of the sentence.
In 2), "brush[ing] my teeth" is a verb phrase and needs to agree with the verb of the clause used as the subject. That is, "I do" needs to agree with "brush." If you rewrote it to say, "The first thing I'll be doing in the morning ...," it would then take "brushing."
At least this is how I parse it. |
Nicely done. |
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jodemas2
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:09 am Post subject: Re: Grammar question |
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| Privateer wrote: |
Why is it that...
(1)"Brushing my teeth is the first thing I do in the morning."
...is ok, but...
(2)"The first thing I do in the morning is brushing my teeth."
...is not? |
The reason this is wrong is because dentists recomend brushing your teeth AFTER eating (not before eating breakfast nor after sleeping)!
Grammatically, however, daskalos is correct. |
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Privateer
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Location: Easy Street.
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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| daskalos wrote: |
Because in 1), "brushing my teeth" is a noun phrase (brushing in this case being a gerund) serving as the subject of the sentence.
In 2), "brush[ing] my teeth" is a verb phrase and needs to agree with the verb of the clause used as the subject. That is, "I do" needs to agree with "brush." If you rewrote it to say, "The first thing I'll be doing in the morning ...," it would then take "brushing."
At least this is how I parse it. |
Sounds good. Thanks a lot. |
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