I’d appreciate it if someone would answer my question about the following 4 sentences. Thanks in advance.
A: Construction of an airport building is hard work.
B: Constructing an airport building is hard work.
C: The construction of an airport building is hard work.
D: The construction of an airport building was a great success.
I think A and B is the same in that both (“construction” in A and “constructing” in B) mean the action of constructing, and both are irrelevant to the passage of time. Am I right?
And I think B is more informal and more common than A. Am I right?
I think “the construction” in C means a specific action (of constructing an airport building, instead of something else). Am I right?
I think there are 2 meanings in “the construction” in D.
One is a specific action (of constructing an airport building, instead of something else).
The other is relevant to the passage of time. It’s an event (the whole process of action) of constructing an airport building. Am I right?
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A and D need corrections:
A: The construction of an airport building is hard work.
B: Constructing an airport building is hard work.
Both A and B refer to the act of construction. ‘Construction’ is a noun and ‘constructing’ is a verb. Neither is more informal or common than the other. It just depends on how the speaker/writer wants to use each sentence.
C: The construction of an airport building is hard work.
As you have seen, the article must be used with the noun. Using the article in itself indicates that this is a specific act.
D: The construction of the airport building was a great success.
This is simply past tense. The construction is now complete.
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Thank you Beesnees. You said concerning D that “This is simply past tense. The construction is now complete.” Do you mean D means an event (the whole process of action) of constructing an airport building? Do you mean D doesn’t mean a special act?
I don’t mean ‘event’ or ‘special act’. I don’t see the difference as I explained in an earlier thread. Why isn’t an ‘event’ a ‘special act’ and vice versa?
Thank you Beesnees, I see your idea.
One more please. You said A is wrong. Is it because the phrase, “of an airport building” has a strong specifying power, so “the” must be added to “construction”?
You overthink things.
Construction = noun. Therefore it requires the article.