All About English Creative Writing

[Herbie]

Hi, The Alternative Story

Can help to advise on the sentence below whether the use of ring and ringing.

- As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ringing.
- As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ring.

Are both the sentence correct?
Can advise please?
Tx

[Engtutor]

Herbie,


If you don’t mind me jumping in…
I believe both sentences are correct grammatically, but they do have different meanings.

In the first, the use of "ring" implies a one off sound.
In the second, the use of the extention "ing" implies that it was a continuing sound.

C

[The Alternative Story]

Lynn2:

thank you.


Do u have holidays prog that can help her to fine tune her writing skills?

Did u manage to read on her second compo?thanks


rgds
Lynn2

Hi Lynn,

Yes we do have holiday programs, we have put them up on the Happenings thread, perhaps you could go there to take a look. Basically, it is a PSLE/Year End Readiness program that gets them ready for the year end examinations. We will cover comprehension strategies, vocabulary building and creative writing among other things.

We also have an on-going Sunday class to help high ability students reach their full potential in writing and also the other components in the English examination. You could email us , pm or call us for further details on this particular program.

We have not had the chance to read it yet as today was quite a busy day for many of the teachers. Will get back to you as soon as we read it.:)

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Herbie:

Hi, The Alternative Story

Can help to advise on the sentence below whether the use of ring and ringing.

- As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ringing.
- As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ring.

Are both the sentence correct?
Can advise please?
Tx

Hi Herbie,

Engtutor is right in saying that for 'ring' it is a one off sound and for 'ringing' it is a continuous sound. For the examination, markers accept both answers. However there are exceptions, for example, for the verb 'made'

- He made her cry (correct)
- He made her crying (wrong)

'He made her crying' is wrong because the verb 'make' has a connotation of it being a one-off event, it is like a child poking another child and that child cries, it is one-off. He poked her, she cried. That is when we say 'He made her cry'

However for verbs like 'saw', 'heard' etc, it can be both a one off event or a continuous one.

- He saw her cry (she cried out or maybe she just cried for a split second)
- He saw her crying (she did not stop and kept on crying the whole time he was looking at her)

TAS

[tianzhu]

Hi TAS


Do you have English creative writing classes for secondary one students?

How about this question?

We _________ that it was unnecessary for them to react so violently.

1) felt
2) feel
3) have felt
4) had felt

Could the answer be felt or feel as well?

Best wishes

[tianzhu]

Hi TAS


I am unsure with gerunds and participles in this sentence.

As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ringing.

In this case, does ringing function as an adjective modifying the noun bell or gerund?

I think it's an adjective, but wish you could help to confirm it.

Best wishes

[Herbie]

Thanks TAS,


I have another qn.

1. There is no use in _______ learning to swim. The weather here is too cold for swimming.

a. I
b. my
c. me

Why is the answer b. Can help to explain?


2. The dog escaped through the open gate and was _________ over by a car.
a. run
b. ran
c. being run

why is the answer a and not b?


3. All types of document are being forged. The problem is growing.

Forging ___________________________________________.


4. Andy was brave and calm when he faced the storm. His friends were afraid.
Unlike ____________.

5. My uncle would rather watch movies at home than go to a cinema.
prefers ___________________________


Can provide the answer? Tx

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

Hi TAS


Do you have English creative writing classes for secondary one students?

Best wishes

Hi tianzhu,

Yes we do have English classes for secondary 1 and in the classes we cover both creative writing and comprehension strategies.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

Hi TAS


How about this question?

We _________ that it was unnecessary for them to react so violently.

1) felt
2) feel
3) have felt
4) had felt

Could the answer be felt or feel as well?

Best wishes

Hi Tianzhu,

The answer should be felt. This is because the action of it being unnecessary took place in the past. However, I understand why you think 'feel' can also be the answer. The person can be talking in the present tense about a past action and say 'He feels that it was unnecessary...'

However, if there are both options 'feel' and 'felt' provided, then 'felt' is a better answer or rather a safer and more clearcut answer.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

tianzhu:

Hi TAS


I am unsure with gerunds and participles in this sentence.

As Mr Tan was walking towards the lift, he heard the emergency bell ringing.

In this case, does ringing function as an adjective modifying the noun bell or gerund?

I think it's an adjective, but wish you could help to confirm it.

Best wishes

Hi Tianzhu,

The ringing here functions as a gerund and not an adjective. If it is used as an adjective, it would be used to describe a noun, it would be used in this manner:

- He heard the ringing emergency bell

In this sentence, the 'ringing' is used to describe the bell.

When it is a gerund, it is used as a noun.

For example:

I enjoy swimming - Here swimming is not used as a verb, it is the name of the activity you enjoy so it is a noun.

I heard the emergency bell ringing - Here the 'ringing' is used as the name of the action that the bell was having.

Usually verbs of perception or observation (noticed, felt, saw, observed, heard, watched etc) are followed by either the bare infinitive(root form of the verb- for eg: go, cry) or gerunds (verbs ending with 'ing')

TAS