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I've read an article on the BBC news, and this sentence really makes me confused.

''And in this cool little video Aston has just released, you can see it very much being pushed to its limits by a real driver''

I know how it would be translated into my native language, but to be honest I cannot find out what grammar tense or structure that the highlighted portion belongs to.

Does it mean ''it is being pushed to its limits''?

tchrist
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Luong Vu
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1 Answers1

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It means:

A real driver is pushing it to its limits, and you can see this.

The thing that you can see — the “this”, if you would — is the real driver pushing it to its limits.

The object of the verb see is here the entire gerund clause following it. It’s a gerund clause whose subject is the object pronoun it.

Sense verbs do this: they can take either a gerund or an infinitive. Since neither is a tensed verb form, a pronoun serving as the subject of a gerund or infinitive clause needs to be in the object case not the subject case.

  • I watched them playing in the park.
  • I heard him calling for help.
  • They observed me struggling to find purchase.
  • We smelled them flowering at their peak.
  • You noticed him coming in without wiping his shoes first.
  • The winter wind was awful; I felt it leaking through the cracked window frame.

Using the gerund instead of the infinitive gives it a continuous sense that does not apply to the corresponding infinitive clause:

  • I watched them play in the park.
  • I heard him call for help.
  • They observed me struggle to find purchase.
  • We smelled them flower at their peak.
  • You noticed him come in without wiping his shoes first.
  • The winter wind was awful; I felt it leak through the cracked window frame.
tchrist
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  • Because I didn't really bother looking at the preceding clause, I initially interpreted it as a variant on I can see this question being closed. I don't know which if any other verbs besides *see* (and perhaps *imagine) allow being* to be used with an unstated I can see this question being closed in the [near] future**. – FumbleFingers Sep 13 '15 at 17:36
  • @FumbleFingersI can imagine it being/getting used that way. I could envision it being/getting used that way. – tchrist Sep 13 '15 at 17:39
  • I can imagine you being a formidable opponent in a debate. But in that usage it's pragmatically perfectly feasible to suppose that what I might think I'm imagining primarily relates to your past/present actions, not "future". – FumbleFingers Sep 13 '15 at 17:55
  • Thank you @tchrist. Your very thorough and detailed explanation of gerund cleared up my confusing. Thus I know the problem is that I didn't consider the entire sentence after the comma it (the highlighted words) concerns but just a individual words. Yet could you please tell me more about using gerund in contexts? Are there any other situations that I might see a gerund? – Luong Vu Sep 13 '15 at 21:19
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    @LuongVu Using a gerund phrase is easy: it can go anywhere that a noun can go, including as the subject of a sentence (like this one). – tchrist Sep 13 '15 at 21:20