Explaining and introducing participle clauses: E3-09W

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Intermediate English grammar explanations: introduction to -ing clauses

 

The –ing clause as a reduced relative clause

Look at these two sentences:

 

I noticed a man.

He was buying books in a corner of the market.

 

Now look at this way of combining them:

 

I noticed a man who was buying books in a corner of the market.

 

Main clause:                         I noticed a man

Subordinate clause:                        who was buying books in a corner of the market

 

We have used the relative pronoun ‘who’ to introduce a relative clause describing the man. What man? – the one buying books.

 

The words ‘who was’ are highlighted because they are not actually necessary. Only ‘buying’ is needed:

 

I noticed a man buying books in a corner of the market.

 

In this type of sentence, we expect the -ing clause to refer to the nearest noun: the man, not I, was buying

 

This type of –ing clause is known as a reduced relative clause.

 

Here are some more examples.

 

Next to the house was a tree (which was) brushing its branches against the windows.

He is a man (who is) struggling to come to terms with his divorce.

The train, (which was) running several hours late, finally arrived around nine o’ clock.

 

Wrong positioning of the –ing clause

When using an –ing clause, we must be careful not to get it in the wrong place:

 

Jane was chased by a policeman running naked down the street.

 

This sentence would probably make a native English speaker smile, because they would read it as a reduced relative: a policeman (who was) running naked…

 

In fact it was the young lady, Jane, who had no clothes on. How should it be written to avoid the confusion? There are two ways:

 

Either:

 Jane, running naked down the street, was chased by a policeman

 

Or:

 Running naked down the street, Jane was chased by a policeman.

 

Two actions, one subject

The –ing clause is also used in another way. Look at this sentence

 

Finding the front door locked, John went round to the back.

 

In this sentence, we have two actions performed by the same subject.

 

John found the front door locked.

John went round to the back.

 

Notice that John did one thing then another, whereas below, Mary did one thing while doing another. An –ing clause can be used for both:

 

Listening to her favourite radio programme, Mary did the washing up.

 

Summary

To summarise, -ing clauses are very useful for your writing, because they are actually easier than relative clauses – you can leave out the relative pronoun. Here are two more examples.

 

We admired the big car (which was) gliding across the bridge.

The waitress, (who was) balancing six plates on her arms, appeared out of the kitchen.

 

The only disadvantage of using an –ing clause is that you must be careful to keep it close to the person or thing it is about.

 

The baby smiled at the waitress, spraying food all over the table. x

The baby, spraying food all over the table, smiled at the waitress. *

Spraying food all over the table, the baby smiled at the waitress. *

 

Now turn to the practice exercises in P3-09W to see if you can create your own –ing clause sentences.