Dear colleagues,

is it possible to form a present participle clause from a state (non-continuous) verb?

For example, People who have children should pay less tax. Transform: People having children should pay less tax.

Is that Ok or should we ONLY say "people with children" here? 

 

OR: The man who owns the flat - Transform - The man owning the flat? 

OR: Women who believe in feminism - Transform - women believing in feminism? 

 

I �ve heard that non-continuous verbs can �t make -ing participles. Or can they?

 

I �m not talking about gerunds, of course. 

Hi, ninon,

These verbs definitely have present participles, but you have to be careful with them.

 

Your three examples don �t sound wrong, but they also don �t sound quite natural, so I wouldn �t use them. To my ear, "People having children..." sounds like people who are in the process of giving birth.

 

Having a cold, he decided to stay home today. This sounds OK to me, but "People having a cold should stay home" doesn �t.

 

I can �t come up with a full-page explanation of the grammar like Les can, but what I feel is that the present participle (as is its purpose) of these verbs gives a sense of happening now, just as the verb usage of the present participle does. That �s why "People having children" sounds to me like they are in the process of it.

 

So what it seems to boil down to is that if you use the present participle as an adjective after the noun, it has to have a verbal sense 

 

Bruce