Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sejpdw]

In the following sentence, which is the subject of " producing"?

1) this experiment
2) the particles
3) the particles heat up

"If done correctly, this experiment makes the particles heat up, producing flames."

[rice07]

Hi

Here to put in my two cents worth.

Cited Practical English Usage as saying:

Certain verbs are followed by object + infinitive without to. They include let,make, see, hear, feel, watch and notice.

e.g. I made him give me the money back.

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Some examples from another grammar book, I guess, might be able to explain your question, but most of its content was written in Chinese. The following, I hope there's not much of the authentic in the book being lost in my translation.

He worked very hard and won the honor.(There's a conjunction and in this case.)

He sat in the corner reading a newspaper.(there's no conjunction in this case.)
= He sat in the corner while he was reading a newspaper.
= He sat in the corner (being) reading a newspaper.

He came home and he was tired.
= He came home (being) tired.

He left when he was young and came back when he was old.
= He left (being) young and came back (being) old

Notice:

1.He came here to see me.( Not seeing me, because came here and see me didn't happen at the same time. Infinitive to see should be used in this case.)

2.He left home at six in the morning, arriving(not arrived) there about four in the afternoon.

In this case above(example 2), despite the fact that whether left home and arrived there, presenting two actions, happened at the same time or not, if there's no conjunction, but a comma, to separate the two verbs in the sentence, we should replace arrived with present participle arriving.

Deducing from that,you can use looking , but not looked, in the following example.

e.g. He ran away quickly, looking as if something terrible had happened.

So, for your example, it should be, I guess, " If (it is) done correctly, this experiment makes the particles heat up and produce flames."
(= " If done correctly, this experiment makes the particles heat up, producing flames ". Therefore, I would say the subject of produce might be the particles.)

If wrong, please correct me! Thanks!

Sincerely

rice07