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Gerund

virr2

Senior Member
Poland
Dear All,

I think that the gerund is wrongly used in the sentence below.

"She has completed her law studies, specialising in antitrust and real estate."

Should I rather say: "She has completed her law studies where she specialised in antitrust and real estate" ?
Or maybe the sentence is OK and I am wrong?

Thank you
Virr
Dear All,

I think that the gerund is wrongly used in the sentence below.

"She has completed her law studies, specialising in antitrust and real estate."

Should I rather say: "She has completed her law studies where she specialised in antitrust and real estate" ?
Or maybe the sentence is OK and I am wrong?

Thank you
Virr

I don't think we are dealing with a gerund here. Gerunds are present participles masquerading as nouns and this is not a noun. The phrase uses a shortened form of, "she was specialising" It is the compund form of the verb to specialis(z)e using the auxilliary verb to be.
Yes, you're right it is not gerund. However, gerunds are not participles - they are identical to the present participle in form. Gerunds are verbal nouns. "Specialising" in my sentence is a present participle. What a stupid mistake I've made!
In order to be more precise you could say "having specialized."
In what way "having specialised" is more precise, elroy? What additional information does it give that the original sentence lacked?
It's grammatically more precise. She has completed her law studies and she has specialized in antitrust and real estate. She is not still specializing in anything.

She is a law student specializing in antitrust and real estate.
(Here I use the normal gerund because she is still in the process of studying.)

She just graduated from law school, having specialized in antitrust and real estate.
(Here I use the perfect gerund because she is no longer a student.)
Can not we use - She has just graduated...... instead of She just graduated.

It's grammatically more precise. She has completed her law studies and she has specialized in antitrust and real estate. She is not still specializing in anything.

She is a law student specializing in antitrust and real estate.
(Here I use the normal gerund because she is still in the process of studying.)

She just graduated from law school, having specialized in antitrust and real estate.
(Here I use the perfect gerund because she is no longer a student.)
Can not we use - She has just graduated...... instead of She just graduated.
Yes, that's correct also.
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