# EN: as well as + V-ing



## mickaël

Hello,

Dans un manuel de grammaire, j'ai une phrase dont je ne comprends pas le fonctionnement et dont je ne suis même pas certain de l'exactitude à vrai dire. Pourriez-vous m'aider s'il vous plaît ?

La phrase en question :
*"She acts as well as dancing." *
Traduit par : "Elle fait non seulement de la danse, mais aussi du théâtre."

Cette forme -ing me semble bizarre...
Est-ce que "dancing" est une sorte de nom comme dans par exemple "I like painting" ?

Merci d'avance


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## xqby

"Dancing" does indeed function as a noun, but the sentence doesn't seem very well-written to me. The simplest revision would be:
"She acts as well as dances."


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## Tim~!

I agree with xqby.  You would expect two similar forms in something that compares like that, so_ subject +_ _*verb* _+ "as well as" *verb*, otherwise you end up with a sentence that means "She dancing".


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## xqby

"Elle joue aussi bien qu'elle danse" = "She acts as well as *she* dances" = "She is as good at acting as at dancing"
"She acts as well as dances" = "She does not only act, but also dances"

Restating the pronoun would change the meaning; my initial revision meant, more or less, "Elle fait non seulement de la danse, mais aussi du théâtre."


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## mickaël

D'accord, cette fois-ci c'est compris. Merci vous deux


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## mroth

Yeah, this is an example of non-parallel structure.

The second verb tense must agree with the first.

"She dances as well as acts"

"She likes dancing as well as acting"

Hope that helps.


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## barbarino25

Hi everyone,

I have one more question. I found the following sentence in my "Practical English Usage" (SWAN):

Smoking is dangerous, as well as *making* you smell bad

I had never heard such a structure before...that's why it kind of sounds strange.

So now, if I try to use the same sentence structure, what about this?

_Being in a country whose mother tongue is English gives the opportunity to speak it as well as forcing you to do it


??????

_It sounds terrible to me...


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## Rallino

I'm not entirely sure but I'll try to explain.

If you separate the sentence it is easier to understand:

_*Smoking is dangerous *_as well as_* smoking is making you smell bad*_.

In the first part the "is" is for simple present, but it is also the auxiliary verb of _smoking_.

_Being in a country whose mother tongue is English gives the opportunity to speak it as well as forcing you to do it
_
Let's separate this too and see what happens:
_*
Being in a country whose mother tongue is English gives the opportunity to speak it*_ as well as _*being in a country whose mother tongue is English forcing you to do it..*_ 

Let's use pronouns to make it look simpler:

_*Being in a country whose mother tongue is English *_is the subject of the sentence, so let's use *it* in its place.

*It gives you to opportunity to speak it as well as forcing you to do it.

*As you can see it doesn't work because the verb _forcing_ in the final part, doesn't have an auxiliary.

But as I said, I'm not sure. Let's hear some native speakers' ideas.


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## Maître Capello

Some grammars recommend avoiding this phrase, but _as well as_ indeed *can* be followed by a gerund even if the main verb is not!

_Smoking is dangerous, as well as *making* you smell bad_.


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## jann

> Smoking is dangerous, as well as *making* you smell bad


I agree that this sentence is... stylistically unfortunate.   But it is not incorrect.

It would be much preferable to use parallel structure. 
_
Smoking is [adjective], as well as [adjective]._

"Dangerous" is the first adjective -- but there is no adjective that means "making one smell bad" for us to use in the second half of the sentence.  You could say, "Smoking is dangerous, as well as malodorous" ... but that doesn't really mean the same thing.   So instead we are forced to use some alternate clause in the second half of the sentence. I would have preferred a true independent clause, joined with a conjunction:  "Smoking is dangerous, and it makes you smell bad." 

On the other hand, if we had a different grammatical structure in the first half of the sentence, then the second half would be fine.  Note the absence of a comma:

_Smoking [verb] as well as [Ving].
Smoking harms your lungs as well as making you smell bad.  _

EDIT: But Personally, I prefer a version with parallel structure:  _Smoking harms your lungs and makes you smell bad._
(Stylistically speaking, the -ing form is often weak, and can be replaced by something more elegant.)  

Some info here.


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## barbarino25

Thanks a lot for your help! 
But what about the second example that I gave, the one with the mother tongue...does it therefore make sense?

Thanks again

_Being in a country whose mother tongue is English gives the opportunity to speak it as well as forcing you to do it

_Wouldn't it be better to say:
...not only gives you the opportunity to speak the language but also forces you to speak it


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## jann

barbarino25 said:


> Wouldn't it be better to say:
> ...not only gives you the opportunity to speak the language but also forces you to speak it


Yes, many people will prefer this parallel structure. 

Or even:
_...gives you an opportunity to speak the language and (indeed) forces you to do so.
_ 
But the original version with "as well as + Ving" is also considered correct:
_...gives *you* the opportunity to speak it as well as forcing you to do *so*._

(As a side note, the indirect object cannot be omitted with "to give.")


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## LivingTree

I have to disagree with those who think "She acts as well as dances" is even good English, let alone better than "She acts as well as dancing".

It sounds very much like something said by a non-native speaker of English, or an English speaker influenced by non-English constructions. Like something we'd hear in the Canadian Parliament. 

"She [verb] as well as [gerund]" is the perfectly natural way for an English speaker to say it.

I picked a verb at random and googled, and got, e.g.,
"_he lectures, as well as teaching_"
"_He still lectures occasionally as well as  acting as an outside examiner_"_
_"_He lectures nationally as well as  internationally specializing_"

Yes, the results included the other form too. But I don't like it at all!


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## Forero

_She acts as well as dances._ = _She acts, and dances too._
_She acts as well as she dances._ = _Her acting is as good as her dancing._
_She acts as well as dancing._ [Not a good sentence: _She acts as well as dancing acts_?]
_As well as dancing, she acts._ = _Besides dancing, she acts._


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## barbarino25

Thanks again; all these comments have been really helpful!


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## jann

LivingTree said:
			
		

> I have to disagree with those who think "She acts as well as dances" is even good English,


I don't think anyone who posted before you did was advocating this version.  EDIT --> My mistake; I see that some of the old posts from 2008 do suggest that version.

As far as I am concerned, if you are going to conjugate both verbs (acts, dances) then the appropriate conjunction is "and," or else the sentence order needs to be changed, making "as well" an adverb that could be replaced by "too."  e.g., _She dances, and acts too/as well._



			
				Forero said:
			
		

> _She acts as well as dancing._ [Not a good sentence: _She acts as well as dancing acts_?]


You might not really like this version, but the structure is accepted (and taught) in English grammar books.


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## Forero

The version with _does _sounds wrong to me because parallelism requires an infinitive:

_ She can not only act, but also dance. 
_ _She does not only act, but also dances. 
_
I would translate "Elle fait non seulement de la danse, mais aussi du théâtre" as:

_She not only acts but dances as well.

_... keeping the parallel structure. Otherwise I would put in a comma:
_
She acts, as well as dancing.

_Without the comma, "as well as" seems to be talking about how well she acts, and, besides, the non-parallel structure is too obvious in such a short sentence.

The structure, however, is grammatical:

_He still lectures occasionally as well as  acting as an outside examiner_.

This does not say "he acting". Consider another non-parallel but correct structure:

_She acts, which is not the same as dancing._
_He still lectures occasionally, which is not the same as regularly acting as an examiner.
_
The non-parallel structure here serves two purposes:


Avoiding repetition. For example, a parallel version would be something like "He still lectures occasionally, and his lecturing occasionally is not the same as ...."
Abstracting an idea. For example, although her acting is a fact, her dancing (or even someone else's) may not be (when we are saying the two ideas are not the same). If we say "She acts, and the fact that she acts is not the same as the fact that she dances", we are making her dancing into a fact. Because English allows the non-parallel structure, we don't have to think of a word to replace _fact_ in the second part.
It may seem "bizarre" to the uninitiated, but sometimes non-parallel structure is required, even in French:

_Il vaut mieux dancer que faire du théâtre. 
 Il vaut mieux dancer que de faire du théâtre. 
_ 
As I see it, the _de_ serves to abstract the idea of acting. One more example of comparing abstract ideas, one of which is a clause:

_She finishes rather than leaves the food to rot. 
_ _  She finishes rather than leave the food to rot. 
__She finishes rather than to leave the food to rot. 
__She finishes rather than leaving the food to rot. 

_The phrase _as well as_, when it means more than "and" or "but", makes a comparison between ideas, just like "... is not the same as ...", "il vaut mieux ... que ...", or "... rather than ...".

I hope this makes sense.


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