After several years of rapid growth

[thanghnvn]

Two more things that I would like to add is

a. since subject is same after "but", there is no need to again write "it" to refer to HCC.
b. "paying" is verb+ing form, it's not gerund so it cannot stand after possessive "its". "payment" would be the right word.

--Kamal

Hi, Kamal, could you kindly explain why "paying" cannot be a gerund? because there is a noun form(payment)for this action(pay)?

Why in"in its paying to.....", the "paying" is not gerund?

Thank you very much!

this is a tricky issue; it's unclear to me whether kamal appreciates the full complexity of what is going on here, so here is my attempt at a fuller explanation:
if there exists a dedicated noun form of a word, then don't use a gerund if you can use that noun form instead.

e.g.
don't use "developing" as a gerund, since you can use "development".
don't use "paying" as a gerund, since you can use "payment".

for gerunds that have no such alternative noun form, it is of course perfectly correct to use the gerund:
her singing of the national anthem at yesterday's game was beautiful.
(there's no dedicated noun form such as "singment" or "singation" or "sing-anything-else", so the gerund here is perfectly respectable.)

Pls, help.

I understand that gerund is doing used as a noun in a sentence. we should use noun, if any, not doing as a noun. Is this correct?

why should we not use " in payment to doctors" in E? Why "paying" in E is good?

gerund is doing used as a noun only
participle is doing used as adjective or verb.

in your example, if I use

"her singing the national anthem"
I will be wrong because " singing" is used both as noun because it has "her" and as verb because it has object "the anthem" .

we should avoid POSSESIVE +DOING+OBJECT

I am totally confused, pls, help.

[thanghnvn]

we should avoid to use doing as a noun and as a verb at the same time

its paying doctors

"paying" is a noun because it has "its"

"paying" is a verb because it has object "doctors"

because if doing is used as a verb, it can not has possesive "its"

is my thinking correct?

[tim]

aside from the stuff i can't understand because of your incorrect grammar, your two most recent posts seem to have the same question. i wouldn't say your sample constructions are unilaterally wrong, but you are right to point out the ambiguity. in most cases (including your examples) i think addition of an appropriate preposition (eg. "her singing of the national anthem") will help clear up the ambiguity..

[hahashout]

Why is B wrong?

Thanks in advance

[zhongshanlh]

Two more things that I would like to add is

a. since subject is same after "but", there is no need to again write "it" to refer to HCC.
b. "paying" is verb+ing form, it's not gerund so it cannot stand after possessive "its". "payment" would be the right word.

--Kamal

Hi, Kamal, could you kindly explain why "paying" cannot be a gerund? because there is a noun form(payment)for this action(pay)?

Why in"in its paying to.....", the "paying" is not gerund?

Thank you very much!

this is a tricky issue; it's unclear to me whether kamal appreciates the full complexity of what is going on here, so here is my attempt at a fuller explanation:
if there exists a dedicated noun form of a word, then don't use a gerund if you can use that noun form instead.

e.g.
don't use "developing" as a gerund, since you can use "development".
don't use "paying" as a gerund, since you can use "payment".

for gerunds that have no such alternative noun form, it is of course perfectly correct to use the gerund:
her singing of the national anthem at yesterday's game was beautiful.
(there's no dedicated noun form such as "singment" or "singation" or "sing-anything-else", so the gerund here is perfectly respectable.)

i am still confused about this issue here.
now i know why C is wrong because in C, the gerund "paying" is intended act as a noun whole the verb "pay" actually has a noun form"payment",so "payment" is required here,am i thinking right?
second, if we apply the rule mentioned above, then i can not understand why in choice D and E,we use "paying" rather than "payment", as we know that after the preposition"in", we need a noun??
pls explain the two questions to me and thank you so much!

[RonPurewal]

i am still confused about this issue here.
now i know why C is wrong because in C, the gerund "paying" is intended act as a noun whole the verb "pay" actually has a noun form"payment",so "payment" is required here,am i thinking right?
second, if we apply the rule mentioned above, then i can not understand why in choice D and E,we use "paying" rather than "payment", as we know that after the preposition"in", we need a noun??
pls explain the two questions to me and thank you so much!

the explanation is neither brief nor simple, but it can be found in the video dated feb. 16, 2012, here:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/thursdays-with-ron.cfm

[nanushka]

Hi Ron,


From the video of February 16,2012-(Use of ING forms) can we conclude that the action of paying is directly performed by the company and therefore ING form is used (paying)?

Please correct me if I am wrong. I am not sure of one thing and would like to hear your opinion. In choice C we have "paying", so how the word "its" makes it wrong if choice C has verb+ING(paying), which conveys the meaning that the subject is directly involved in the action of paying ?

Or maybe is "its" wrong because "its paying" makes the "paying" gerund-noun but we need verb+ING not gerund???


Nane

[jlucero]

Here's the last part of C and E:

(C) falling behind in its paying doctors
(E) falling behind in paying doctors

In (C) paying becomes a modifier describing doctors- the company was falling behind in doctors.

In (E) paying is a gerund- the company was falling behind in paying doctors.

[nanushka]

Thanks Joe for the explanation. Now I completely understand why "ITS" in answer choice C is wrong,because it sounds strange "paying doctors",it sounds as if "paying" is kind of adjective for "doctors".

Sorry,but I don't understand the application of the "PAYING" as a gerund. After watching the video Feb.16,2012 I thought "PAYING" is used here as verb+ING and conveys the meaning that the subject of the sentence "company" is directly involved in the action "paying" and therefore is correct.
As I know gerund is considered a noun,so if we use "paying" as a gerund here we end up with the construction: "falling behind noun noun". Maybe because I am non-native speaker that sounds strange to my ear I don't know.
Could you please explain where I am wrong here?

[thanghnvn]

I am confused of the use of verb-ing.

Can I say

verb-ing (paying) can not be used with possessive pronoun if there is a noun (payment)

verb-ing (adopting), not noun ( adoption) is used when we emphasise that the subject causes the action of verb-ing.

Am I correct? I think that is all of the matter. Try to make the matter simple in 2 specific cases. dont try to generalize for no cases. we are doing gmat SC, not doing general grammar.

pls, confirm, comment.

[jlucero]

Thanks Joe for the explanation. Now I completely understand why "ITS" in answer choice C is wrong,because it sounds strange "paying doctors",it sounds as if "paying" is kind of adjective for "doctors".

Sorry,but I don't understand the application of the "PAYING" as a gerund. After watching the video Feb.16,2012 I thought "PAYING" is used here as verb+ING and conveys the meaning that the subject of the sentence "company" is directly involved in the action "paying" and therefore is correct.
As I know gerund is considered a noun,so if we use "paying" as a gerund here we end up with the construction: "falling behind noun noun". Maybe because I am non-native speaker that sounds strange to my ear I don't know.
Could you please explain where I am wrong here?

It's not so much the construction "falling behind noun noun" but rather "falling behind in 'long noun'." "Paying doctors" is a gerund phrase here. Notice that it's after the preposition "in", which means falling can't be a verb:

Paying doctors can be costly.
X can be costly.

[jlucero]

I am confused of the use of verb-ing.

Can I say

verb-ing (paying) can not be used with possessive pronoun if there is a noun (payment)

verb-ing (adopting), not noun ( adoption) is used when we emphasise that the subject causes the action of verb-ing.

Am I correct? I think that is all of the matter. Try to make the matter simple in 2 specific cases. dont try to generalize for no cases. we are doing gmat SC, not doing general grammar.

pls, confirm, comment.

If you want to refer to a thing, use a concrete noun. If you want to talk about the process, use an action noun, such as a gerund.

Paying my bills takes forever; it's not a fun process.
My mortgage payment is expensive; it costs way too much.

[nanushka]

Thanks Joe for the explanation. Now I completely understand why "ITS" in answer choice C is wrong,because it sounds strange "paying doctors",it sounds as if "paying" is kind of adjective for "doctors".

Sorry,but I don't understand the application of the "PAYING" as a gerund. After watching the video Feb.16,2012 I thought "PAYING" is used here as verb+ING and conveys the meaning that the subject of the sentence "company" is directly involved in the action "paying" and therefore is correct.
As I know gerund is considered a noun,so if we use "paying" as a gerund here we end up with the construction: "falling behind noun noun". Maybe because I am non-native speaker that sounds strange to my ear I don't know.
Could you please explain where I am wrong here?

It's not so much the construction "falling behind noun noun" but rather "falling behind in 'long noun'." "Paying doctors" is a gerund phrase here. Notice that it's after the preposition "in", which means falling can't be a verb:

Paying doctors can be costly.
X can be costly.

I understand now.

THANKS!

[jlucero]

Of course!

[divineacclivity]

", but" connects two independent clauses I heard.

the comma is sometimes employed when "but" is used to connect units smaller than clauses, if those units are so long that the sentence becomes difficult to read without the comma.

for instance:
James tried to sneak back into the house at 5 a.m. without waking his parents, but climbed through a window directly into the room where his father was already getting dressed.
--> try taking out the comma; if you do, the sentence becomes an unreadable blob.

Sorry for picking it up from the middle of a conversation. I couldn't understand if "it" after "but" in option C is (always) right or wrong?

thank you very much in advance