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which one is correct?
Please tell me which of the two sentences is correct? If both are correct, please explain to me why:
I was woken up by a ringing bell. I was woken up by a bell ringing. Thank you. smartie
I would say the first is more "normal". You would use "a bell ringing" together with "hear", thus: "I woke up when I heard a bell ringing" or, better still, "a bell ring" (this latter one implies that the ringing had stopped by the time you woke up, while the former implies an on-going ringing, IMHO). You can also say: "I was woken up by the ring of a bell" (this is the one I would prefer over both of the others).
You can say either. They are both correct.
"I was woken up by a ringing bell." Here, the bell is the noun that woke you up, and ringing is just the adjective describing the bell. "I was woken up by a bell ringing." Here, the bell is still the noun that woke you up, but now ringing is the verb that it is doing. So, ringing can be either an adjective or a noun, depending on where it falls in the sentence, and these two sentences are slightly different ways to convey the same idea. |