comma before present participle: i listened to music, studying.

D

Doom

New Member
korean.
hello i'm an english learner living in korea.

reading some english books, i had figured out some sentences written such as

'he went out, saying good bye.'
is the sentence above a correct sentence?
and comparing to this sentecne 'he went out and said good bye'
which one is the correct sentence.

and i want to know
how to say i was doing something as i was doing another thing at the same time by using a comma and a -ing form verb following the comma.
my english subject teacher in korea says that
"i listened to music, studying' this sentence is a wrong sentence. and it needs to be rewritten as 'i listened to music, and studied'
i don't understand why she put a 'and' instead of a comma and a -ing form verb following
 
    • "i listened to music,studying." means "after i finished listening to music,i went to study." they were not happening at the same time. :)
     
    the_dumb said:
    "i listened to music,studying." means "after i finished listening to music,i went to study." they were not happening at the same time. :)
    Click to expand...

    I don't think this is the case. The sentence is awkward because it places the main activity at the end, at least in my interpretation. I'd have no problem with: "I studied my Science lesson in my room, listening to music." These would both be happening at the same time. This also works for me: 'he went out, saying good bye.'

    I believe the idea is to place the main action at the beginning and the additional information at the end of the sentence. "He walked away from us, throwing his hands up in the air."

    The two actions do take place at the same time.

    [edit] Thinking about it a little more, the "-ing" portion of the sentence is usually longer than one word. I can think of a few examples where it's a single word, but I believe it's usually a phrase. "He walked toward us, grinning" would work, but "He walked toward us, grinning from ear to ear" sounds more natural.

    For example, if the main thing you were doing was listening to music and just "studying on the side", I can imagine writing: "I listened to music, studying my lesson halfheartedly."
     
    JamesM said:
    I don't think this is the case. The sentence is awkward because it places the main activity at the end, at least in my interpretation. I'd have no problem with: "I studied my Science lesson in my room, listening to music." These would both be happening at the same time. This also works for me: 'he went out, saying good bye.'

    I believe the idea is to place the main action at the beginning and the additional information at the end of the sentence. "He walked away from us, throwing his hands up in the air."

    The two actions do take place at the same time.
    Click to expand...


    yeah,you're right.:) and thanks.
     
    You could also say "I listened to music while studying" but I don't know how to explain the reason that a connector like "while" is needed here but not in the sentence "He walked away from us, throwing his hands up in the air." I think "throwing his hands up in the air" is clearly a modifying phrase: it describes something secondary to the act of "walking away from us." In contrast, "listening to music" and "studying" are co-equal activities, rather than one modifying the other.

    Does that make sense?

    Elisabetta

    P.S. to Doom and the_dumb: don't forget to use capital letters where appropriate! :)
     
    clairanne said:
    hi

    I would write " I listened to music "whilst" studying." I think this is only used in BE though and is considered to be very formal.
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    In BE we I use while or whilst at will, depending on how it sounds.

    If you try it, you will realise that we why I would use while in this case :)

    Doom said:
    Hello, I'm an English student living in Korea.

    Reading some English books, I had figured out some sentences written like this:

    'He went out, saying good bye.'
    Is the sentence above a correct sentence?

    And comparing to this sentence, 'He went out and said good bye,'
    which one is correct?

    I also want to know how to say I was doing something while I was doing something else at the same time by using a comma followed by a -ing form verb.

    My English subject teacher in Korea says that, "I listened to music, studying,' is wrong. and it needs to be rewritten as, 'I listened to music, and studied.'
    I don't understand why she put a 'and' instead of a comma and a -ing form verb following.
    Click to expand...
    I was going to post a reply, but I see that JamesM has already said what I was going to say :) - and I can't add anything about why the , verbing form works in some cases but not others.
     
    hi

    I see what you mean with the double "st" but I am always being laughed at by my friends for the way I pronounce all the letters so I would still use it!!!
     
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