Do You Mind Me Teaching You About the Fused Participle?

I wonder if it is possible to write a blog about writing without covering grammar at some point. Until such a time comes, I have devoted the Everything About English section of the Wordsmith on the standard rules for constructing sentences into meaningful prose. What better way to begin than with a concept I've always struggled with?

Of the following sentences, which would you be more likely to use in speech, writing, or both?

Sentence 1: I object to him singing at twelve o’clock in the morning

Sentence 2: I object to his singing at twelve o’clock in the morning

What is the difference between the two sentences? When the letter combination “-ing” is added to the end of a verb, the word can act as a noun, a verb, or an adjective. When used as a noun, like in the previous sentences, the created noun is called a gerund, in all other cases it is called a participle.

The participle as an adjective: I’m a traveling salesman

The participle as a verb: I’m cooking these eggs

The participle as a noun (gerund): I enjoy singing as a hobby

            In the first two sentences, the verb to sing should be acting as a gerund, because it is the late-night activity that the person has a problem with. Since the pronoun him in Sentence 1 is not possessive, the idea is that the person objects to the gentleman who happens to be singing, not to the singing itself. When you place a non-possessive pronoun before a gerund, thereby making it a participle, you create what H.W. Fowler called a fused participle. This is easily corrected by you changing the non-possessive pronoun to a possessive pronoun (him to his), or by your changing the syntax of the sentence (if the possessive sounds strange).       

Activities:

1      Find and correct the fused participles in the following:

Me sitting by the door doesn’t bother anybody        

 I hate that man being ripped off like that

I wonder if Sam’s singing is good enough for Broadway       

 I don’t mind you using my iPhone

I loathe them dancing while I’m thinking         

I question the speaker’s understanding of grammar

        Now that you have mastered this lesson, do you know how many fused participles were in this post all together?

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