Posted by Tom Napier on January 11, 2010 at 02:50:14 user Didymus.
In Reply to: Re: Grammar (was Ages in GN) posted by John Lambert on January 11, 2010 at 23:17:40:
Here's a couple of sentences for the grammarians to play with:
"The flowers need to be watered." [Scottish usage I grew up with.]
"The flowers need watering." [Usage I first encountered in Yorkshire.]
They both mean roughly the same but I found the contrast in emphasis between the end result and the process rather odd.
"Watering" is presumably a gerund but I can't place "to be watered."