After returning from work, you walk into your house and notice an item that wasn’t there when you left in the morning. What room were you in, what was the item and how did it get there?
Be sure to share your responses!
When I was young, my entire family would go camping on holiday weekends. In the evening, the adults would build a huge fire in order to get coals on which they would cook dinner. Then, late into the night, they would sit around the fire and talk about the good ol’ days.
My cousins and I loved to poke the fire and throw in trash. The sight of the trash burning was amazing. We eventually decided to build a small fire of our own. We surrounded a few twigs with rocks and tried to start our fire by rubbing two sticks together. We gained smoke, but never any fire so we finally used matches. Then, once again, we poked the fire, but this time it was our fire that we poked.
As the years have passed, my cousins and I no longer build our own fire. We have replacements. The younger cousins, who are the age we once were, are now amazed with what fire can do, poke the fire, and build one to call their own.
Borders announced on June 3 “a corporate payroll reduction that includes the elimination of 156 corporate positions spread across virtually all departments of its Ann Arbor headquarters. Employees at the company’s headquarters were informed of the job eliminations this morning. In addition, Borders Group has eliminated 118 corporate posts that are based outside its headquarters, impacting primarily corporate employees in distribution centers, the field marketing organization, and the corporate sales division. These employees were informed yesterday.”
The employee cuts were almost entirely corporate employees, reducing corporate staff by 20 percent. The company called the reductions part of “an aggressive plan to reduce annual expenses by $120 million” and added they “expect to save half of that amount yet this fiscal year.”
Later that week, it was announced that Borders has reached an agreement to sell its Australian, New Zealand, and Singapore storesto A&R Whitcoulls in a deal that could be worth as much as $104 million. Earlier this year, talks between the two companies broke off at the last minute over what is believed to have been the terms of the deal. Under the new agreement, Borders will receive $90 million upon the closing of the transaction and another $14 million if certain performance targets are met.
A gerund is a word that ends in -ing and is acting as a noun. All gerunds end in -ing, but not all -ing words are gerunds; only the ones that are acting as nouns.
This is important to distinguish because of how gerunds are treated within sentences. Since gerunds are nouns, if pronouns are placed before them, the pronouns must be in the possessive form.
Correct: My going to the mall left Stacie home alone.
Incorrect: Me going to the mall left Stacie home alone.
Try It!
Find the gerunds in the sentences below and make sure the sentences with gerunds have pronouns, not nouns, before the gerunds.
1. My parents are going shopping because them shopping always lowers their stress levels from work.
2. Us going to the party will be a surprise for Chris.
3. I am writing a paper for school because me writing it will get me a better grade.
4. She was surprised at them going to the library.
5. Him falling off the swings led to him getting stiches on his leg.