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ENGLISCH/837: Questions to Mrs Gobbledygook (159) Trouble with -ing (SB)


QUESTIONS   TO   MRS   GOBBLEDYGOOK


159. Startling "ing"-Form



Dear Mrs Gobbledygook

I come from Ghana, Africa, and I have some problems with the so-called "ing"-form, because I don't understand when I should use it. Just take the following example, I overheard the other night during an economic review in the British television:

"We didn't want people thinking that we wanted to hide the facts... ."

I would always say, "We didn't want people to think that we wanted to hide the facts."

instead. So, what do you think, is there something wrong with the "ing"-Form in this example or am I just ignorant.

Yours sincerely

Sam A. O. (Ghana)


*


Dear Mr O.

NO, you are not ignorant! There is nothing wrong with your way of putting the words. Both sentences are correct.

"We didn't want people thinking that we wanted to hide the facts."

and

"We didn't want people to think that we wanted to hide the facts."

Even the meanings of these two sentences are more or less the same (they are just very slightly different). The version with the "ing"-form, with the verb "thinking", is perhaps a little surprising, as we usually expect, that when "want" is used with another word afterwards we have "to" and then the verb: "I want to think ...".

However, when "want" is followed by a person and then another verb we can sometimes have the second verb in the "ing"-form as in "we don't want them thinking ...".

We normally use the version with the "ing"-form to describe an action which takes place over a certain length of time. So if we say

"We don't want them to think ..."

we imagine them having the thoughts about the hidden facts and then forgetting the hole thing.

If, on the other hand, we say

"We don't want them thinking ..."

then there is an idea that they might spend some time thinking about the facts being hidden and not forgetting.

The want and the "ing"-form can also be used in other situations. Imagine a stage director trying to explain to the actors where they have to stand in the scene:

"Danny, I want you standing behind the chair. I want you sitting in the chair, Arnold. And Julia, you are the maid, I want you cleaning the floor. Then Hugh, I want you to open the door. And then Melanie, I want you to walk towards him."

So all the verbs that describe long continuous actions are usually in the "ing"-form, i.e. standing, sitting, cleaning etc. And all the verbs which describe a short action are in the infinitived or perhaps the simple present tense: to open, to walk.

In fact, we more often use the structure with the "ing"-form in the negative. And then sometimes it does describe actions which - if they ever happened - would take only a short time. For example:

"I don't want you falling of the cliff. I don't want you having an accident on the way home etc."

In other words: This structure is often used to describe some kind of worry and that is exactly the question that you send to us.

"We didn't want people thinking that we wanted to hide the facts."

So, I don't want you troubling about this kind of "ing"-form any more. And if there is more you worry about, please be welcome to write again.

Yours

Mrs Gobbledygook


18 March 2009