| A |
Study these situations: 
Joe was playing football. He hurt his knee. You can say: Joe hurt his knee playing football.
You were feeling tired. So you went to bed early.
You can say: Feeling tired, I went to bed early.
'Playing football' and 'feeling tired' are -ing clauses.
If the -ing clause is at the beginning of the sentence (as in the second example), we write a comma (,) after it.
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| B |
When two things happen at the same time, you can use an -ing clause:
- Kate is in the kitchen making coffee. (= she is in the kitchen and she is making coffee)
- A man ran out of the house shouting. (= he ran out of the house and he was shouting)
- Do something! Don't just stand there doing nothing!
We also use -ing when one action happens during another action. We use -ing for the longer action:
- Joe hurt his knee playing football. (= while he was playing)
- Did you cut yourself shaving? (= while you were shaving)
You can also use -ing after while or when:
- Joe hurt his knee while playing football.
- Be careful when crossing the road. (= when you are crossing)
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| C |
When one action happens before another action, we use having (done) for the first action:
- Having found a hotel, we looked for somewhere to have dinner.
- Having finished her work, she went home.
You can also say after -ing:
- After finishing her work, she went home.
If one short action follows another short action, you can use the simple -ing form (doing instead of having done) for the first action:
- Taking a key out of his pocket, he opened the door.
These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.
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| D |
You can use an -ing clause to explain something, or to say why somebody does something.
The -ing clause usually comes at the beginning of the sentence:
- Feeling tired, I went to bed early. (= because I felt tired)
- Being unemployed, he doesn't have much money. (= because he is unemployed)
- Not having a car, she finds it difficult to get around. (= because she doesn't have a car)
Use having (done) for something that happened before something else:
- Having already seen the film twice, I didn't want to see it again. (= because I had already seen it twice)
These structures are used more in written English than in spoken English.
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