REALIZAÇÃO DOS EXERCÍCIOS PROPOSTOS NO FINAL DE CADA TEMA

...

- Gerunds

Form

Verb+”ing”

Examples

Being, going, doing

The gerund form of the verbs is another verb tense, which is used with other verbs. For example, when used with the verb “to be” as its auxiliary, it forms the “Continuous Tenses”.

Examples

Present Continuous:

She is wiring some money to her son in the UK.

Past Continuous:

They were closing the deal when they decided to raise the investment.

Future Continuous

The New York Stock Exchange will be closing earlier today due to market fluctuations.

Gerunds, as you have seen in a previous lesson, are also used as subjects of sentences used as nouns our substantive to describe activities.

Examples:

Dieting has become an ordeal to people in today´s world for everyone wants to be fit.

Overdrinking may lead to heart and other metabolic and neurologic problems.

Investing all this money in such unstable business is not a wise decision.

When a verb is precede by a preposition, it must also be conjugated in the Gerund form.

Examples

I am tired of working so hard.

We are looking forward to seeing you again.

Paul has given up on wasting so much money in gambling. Good for him!

The Gerund form is also mandatory in such structures after verbs follow certain specific verbs in English. Such verbs are: avoid, enjoy, stop (in the sense of ceasing), finish, consider, mind, suggest, delay, consider, miss, risk, imagine, practice, deny, admit, and others.

Examples

I´ll do the shopping after I have finished writing the essay.

He avoided spending all his savings in just one impulse buy.

Thomas is considering traveling to the Bahamas to open an offshore bank account.

The salesperson at the car agency suggested purchasing the brand new car instead of the used one.

We always enjoy spending our vacations abroad.

- Infinitives or Gerunds

In the same sense, certain verbs also allow that both an infinitive or a gerund follow them, and there is no or very little difference in the meaning. Among such verbs are: like, prefer, hate, begin, continue, love, start, intend, and bother.

Examples

I like dancing. / I like to dance.

I hate working out. / I hate to work out.

It has started raining. / It has started to rain.

She will continue playing. / She will continue to play.

We prefer drinking wine. / We prefer to drink wine.

Note: In the case of the verb Stop, the gerund form is used when the meaning is related to ceasing the action;

Example

James has stopped smoking. (He quit smoking; that is, he does not smoke anymore)

Now, when we say:

James has stopped to smoke.

The meaning is just the opposite: it means that James stopped what he was doing and started to smoke. That is: he had a cigarette break, for instance.

- Passive Voice Review

As you have seen previously, The Passive Voice, in contrast with the Active Voice, is a structure used to inform, designate or denote much more the result of an action. It is very used in day-to-day English.

Forms

- Active Voice:

Subject+Verb (Any Tense Conjugation)+Object+ complement

Example:

John built his house himself in 1978.

- Passive Voice

Subject + Verb to be + Past Participle of Principal Verb+”by” + Agent

(Any tense conjugation)

Example:

John´s house was built by himself in 1978.

Compare:

- Active: People spend huge amounts of money in superfluous items.

Passive: Huge amounts of money are spent in superfluous items.

Notice that here the agent of the passive was omitted since we do not know who the people were exactly.

- Active: Someone told me that it is easy to withdraw cash in American ATM´s.

- Passive: I was told that it is easy to withdraw cash in American ATM´s.

Notice that here too the Subject in the active voice is omitted in the Passive because it is not determined (by someone). It could be used, but it is not necessary for the understanding of the sentence.

Glossário:

Get back together: A expressão idiomática “get back together” significa, voltar a conviver ou, como usaríamos em lingual portuguesa no contexto, reatar uma relação.

Close the deal: “Close the deal”, ou “close a deal” é uma outra expressão idiomática que tem o significado de se fechar um negócio ou uma transação.

Honor the agreement: A construção “honor the/na agreement”, possui realmente o significado de se honrar um contrato,