During studying?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

I’ve just come across the following sentence and I wonder if the combination “during studying” is correct:

This way, during studying, you must avoid thinking in your native language.

Shouldn’t it read “while studying” instead of “during studying”? I mean, during is usually followed by a noun rather than a gerund, or am I missing something?

Thanks a lot and a happy 2008.
Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: A German Shepard[YSaerTTEW443543]

2

You’re right. It should be “while studying” or “during your studies”. In English we try to avoid two “-ings” in a row.

3

To me, studying is not actually a gerund in your sentence, Torsten. In this case, it is the elided form of the present continuous (i.e. studying is a participle and part of a verb tense). Thus, while should have been used instead of during.

You can use a gerund with during, but as Jamie mentioned, the wording needs to change. Generally speaking, you would need to add an article or a possessive adjective. Even so, this construction will often sound awkward.

  • During the showing of the movie, I fell asleep. (a little awkward, but grammatically correct)

  • During the watching of the movie, I fell asleep. (very awkward, but technically grammatically correct. I guess this would end up as back-to-back genitives in German: “Während des Anschauens des Filmes…”)

  • During the movie, I fell asleep. (In German, genitive: “Während des Filmes …”)

  • While (I was) watching the movie, I fell asleep. (In English, the past continuous. In German: “Während ich den Film anschaute, …”)
    .

4

Hi Amy and Jamie,

Thanks a lot for your explanations which make perfect sense. By the way, it’s amazing how many webpages contain the phrase “during studying”.

Regards,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Taking a picture[YSaerTTEW443543]

5

Now that you mention it, I’ve googled it and found it appears plenty on sites apparently written by native speakers. They usually appear to be created by unskilled writers, or written in some kind of bureaucratese.

6

Hi. :slight_smile:

Torsten: Another reason for this could be the habit of ‘verbal laziness’ which is so common with many native speakers. When we are speaking informally, we can become quite relaxed with our grammar. “During studying” could easily be a shortened form of “During the time you are studying”.

(I’m a native speaker and I’ve caught myself doing this sort of thing many times. It’s a definite habit with informal/neutral speech for many people. We often take it for granted that others will understand our abbreviations. grin)

~Soaryn