Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[enaj64kr]

There are -ing forms here. Are they all right?

He felt the boat rocking.
The scene made me laughing.
She helped me cooking.

[redset]

He felt the boat rocking - this is fine.

The scene made me laughing - when you use 'made object verb' you use the infinitive of the verb (without to): 'The scene made me laugh'. If you want to use 'laughing' (to say you laughed a lot) you could say 'the scene made me start laughing' or 'the scene had me laughing'.

She helped me cooking - you can't say this, but you can say 'she helped me to cook', 'she helped me cook' or 'she helped me with the cooking'.

They're a little tricky, but you'll become more familiar with what you can say and what you can't