Podcast: Usando a forma -ING como substantivo

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Oct 02
Inglês - Podcast Usando a forma -ING como substantivo

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Hello, all. No episódio de hoje, temos mais do -ING (doING, eatING, etc) aplicado de uma maneira que eu quase nunca ouço alunos usarem. Vamos falar dele, o gerúndio do inglês, numa forma que não tem nada a ver com o que fazemos em português: com a função de substantivo.

VEJA ISSO! Aqui no site você encontra várias dicas sobre -ING em geral e sobre seu uso como sujeito ou substantivo tmbém. Recomendo dar uma olhada nessa, nessa aqui e também nessa.

Encontre no texto todos os exemplos de gerúndio (e expressões começando com gerúndio) que fazem a função de substantivo.

Transcrição

Hello, all. Here’s a new episode of the Inglesonline podcast. Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app. Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes. Thanks for telling your friends, your neighbors, your family and keep listening!

So… Are you guys ready? Today’s topic is a favorite of mine to write or talk about because I know that not many English students have incorporated these words into their speech yet, or into their writing even.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about words like writing, eating, seeing, working and so on. Verbs in the -ING form… Which to us is simply “escrevendo, comendo, vendo, trabalhando.” So what’s the big deal? “I am writing” means “Eu estou escrevendo”; “Eu estou comendo” means “I am eating.” So what?

Well, at the beginning of this post I suggested you read three of my past tips that talk about the -ING form being used as a noun. Now, notice that I’m not saying “name.” What I mean is a “noun.” A noun is a word for a place, a person or a thing. And what would that thing be? An activity. A task. An occupation. Anything that describes the act of doing something.

Let’s take writing, for example. The activity of writing, or the action of writing. Now really listen to these examples:

  1. Jack and I produced this report together. He did the writing; I did the editing.
  2. My boss asked me how long it took us to do the report. Editing it was fast; now, writing it took a while.
  3. I also told my boss that Jack was planning to do the entire thing on his own, till I offered to help. Jack asked me “Are you OK with writing it?”
  4. Writing the report was definitely the hardest part.

Now, in the first example I said “He did the writing.” How would we even say that in Brazil? I guess we could simply say “Ele escreveu.” If we wanted to be more literal in our translation, we could say “Ele fez a escrita.” So Jack did the writing. That task, writing, was completed by Jack. And there was another task involved: editing. The text needed to be edited. Jack did the writing and I did the editing. Editing was fast; writing it took a bit longer. Listen to this one again: editing was fast but writing it took a bit longer.

Now think about how we say that kind of thing in Portuguese. “Editar foi rápido mas escrever demorou.” We frequently use the infinitive – editar, escrever – to describe an activity, to give it a name. In English, most of the time, we go with the -ING form. Editing was fast. Now, writing it took a while. I did the editing, the task of editing the report; and Jack did the writing. The task of writing the report was done by Jack.

My friends and I prepared the beach house for the weekend together. I did the washing, Mary did the cleaning and Jenny did the grocery shopping. It took me two hours to complete the washing. Washing the dishes was a bit boring but I did some listening while I washed. The cleaning got done in less than an hour. Cleaning the house was fast and simple. Jenny did the shopping. Shopping was fun. Shopping took a few hours, though… Jenny got stuck in traffic on her way back.

Are you ready to leave a few examples? I’d love to see them. Talk to you next time!

 

Keywords

  • the editing, the writing
  • doing it was easy / difficult
Ana
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Andre Almeida 09/10/2014

Hi Ana, I love your podcast! Here my expample, I’m wriring for the Teacher and listening the podcast while i’m playing online games. Thank you!

Beatriz 08/10/2014

Teacher,

Não consegui compreender a seguinte frase: “Washing the dishes was a bit boring but I did some listening while I washed”.

– Lavar os pratos foi chato mas ….

Jonata fontela 05/10/2014

Hi Ana, this topic is very cool! my example: I’m going to vote right now but I think voting is really boring also standing in line is tiring, anyway,I can’t wait to go back home :D

Jivago 03/10/2014

Hi Ana,

I believe you have a typo in “The cleaning got done in less then an hour.”. Should be “than” instead of “then”. Thanks and keep up the good work!

    Ana 03/10/2014

    Thank you – fixed :)

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