gerund passive
At midnight the sleeping British were woken by the sound of carols being sung in the German threnches.
Why is the passive gerund - being sung- in this sentence?
May we replace it with some other construction?
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 2
3
The active version could be something like this:
"At midnight, the sleeping British were woken by the sound of German soldiers singing carols in their trenches."
Note that both 'being' and 'singing' are present participles, rather than gerunds.
2
Being sung is a passive verb.
The Germans were singing songs. Active The songs were being sung by the soldiers. Passive.
A gerund is a verb that acts as a noun. This is not the case.
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