Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

Jerry Chen · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 115

Hello,

I just found a sentence which says, "He has a part-time job delivering newspapers every morning."

I wonder why "ing" is added to "deliver." Any grammatical rules?

Thanks for your reply!

lotus · Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 862

Hi Jerry,

The sentence is correct as it stands in the present tense. To use "deliver", you can say:

"He has a part-time job to deliver newspapers every morning."

--lotus

Lorikeet · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 1877 Location: San Francisco

KazAV · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:24 am Post subject:

Wouldn't this be substituting a participle phrase for a relative clause to make the sentence more compact? So, "he has a part-time job delivering newspapers every morning" as opposed to, "he has a part-time job which is delivering newspapers every morning."

I only ask to clarify for myself as I am teaching this to a student at the moment as part of his school course in grade 9.

Lorikeet · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 1877 Location: San Francisco

Yep, that's what I think it is. I thought I said as much in my post but maybe it wasn't clear.

lotus · Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 862

Hi,

"He has a part-time job delivering newspapers every morning."

It can be interpreted as an appositive gerund phrase (noun) or a participial phrase (adjective).

http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/grammar/course/sentence/2_4d.htm#verbal

--lotus

KazAV · Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:07 pm Post subject:

Thanks Lotus. That's really helpful Very Happy