“His being chosen as a headmaster have surprised us.”
Is the sentence above right? Do I have to change the gerund to:
“His having been chosen as a headmaster have surprised us.”
“His being chosen” vs. “His having been chosen”
May 30th, 2010 by Lai Chen Siang
5 Responses to ““His being chosen” vs. “His having been chosen””
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Teaching English to Preschoolers with iPhones
We (i.e. the creators of Pain in The English) developed a series of iPhone apps to teach preschool kids how to recognize letters and words. (My wife developed the characters and I did the coding.) Our own 4-year old daughter has been enjoying them. They are now available on Apple's App Store. You can search for "bitskis" on your iPhone, or visit the official website at bitskis.com.
If you have kids and own an iPhone, please check it out. It's $2.
In either case the verb for should be “…has surprised us.” However, here’s how I’d write the sentence for clarity and concisesness:
“His selection as headmaster surprised us.”
“His selection as headmaster surprised us” could be interpreted as “[The person that he chose] as headmaster surprised us.” It’s ok if there is no ambiguity in the context, though.
The clearest option is to make it active voice: “We were surprised that he was chosen as a headmaster.”
@Except that said: “We were surprised that he was chosen as a headmaster.”
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While this option is clearer, it’s actually passive voice since “we” are the receivers of the action “surprised,” rather than the doers.
There is nothing at all wrong with saying, “His being chosen as headmaster surprised us.” The gerund phrase, “being chosen,” is the subject of the sentence, which is why the pronoun must be “his” instead of “him”; “his” is an adjective describing the subject.
The simple ,the better, I think,
Both sentences seem very passive to me. I think I’d prefer a very apparent, active subject (we, because being surprised is the important word here, right?). Also, as David said, simplest is best.
I don’t think Except is wrong in stating that “We were surprised that he was chosen” is more active. “Surprised” is a state of being–more like a noun than a verb–not an action. “Were” is the verb in that suggested sentence, and surprised here is an adjective (modifying we).
Please, correct me if I’m wrong!