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I have some doubts about using ing-verb in the following case:

Such data structures don't allow insretion/inserting/to insert any kind of objects.

Is it considered grammatically correct to say that in all three ways? I'm not sure about ing-verb because I didn't find that we can use it in that way. For instance, there.

St.Antario
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  • Who is doing the inserting and why aren't they referred to in the sentence? The nominal insertion is the only grammatical choice, without a subject for a verbal clause. If insertion is used, the whole phrase should be allow the insertion of. But it's still not clear who or what is forbidding whom or what to insert what where. If your readers are already clear on all that, no problem. – John Lawler Jan 26 '15 at 18:03
  • @tchrist BTW, allow is not in the list of the verbs that is being used with a gerund. Why is it possible to use along with the gerund? – St.Antario Jan 27 '15 at 03:44
  • @FumbleFingers I'm sorry, I can't find an answer in the link you provided. Why do you think the question is related? – St.Antario Jan 27 '15 at 03:44
  • @St.Antario: The accepted answer in my closevote makes it clear that it allows to insert something is unacceptable to native speakers (probably a "Germanism"). The specific action being [dis]allowed isn't syntactically significant - the OP himself there endorses it allows the insertion of X (as does John Lawler here) or it allows one to insert X. Besides which I consider this question better suited to English Language Learners. – FumbleFingers Jan 27 '15 at 13:17
  • @FumbleFingers I got that, TY. Are there another verbs that require to have a pronoun after their? – St.Antario Jan 27 '15 at 20:01
  • @St.Antario: I don't understand your question. I happened to use "it" to save space in a comment, but I don't see how that's relevant to anything being discussed here. But to repeat - you should probably be asking about such matters on English Language Learners – FumbleFingers Jan 27 '15 at 20:39
  • @FumbleFingers You said that it allows to insert something is incorrect, but it allows us to insert something is acceptable. So it's reasonable to ask if there are another verbs like allow, which requires to put a pronoun after it, I mean the following pattern ___verb__ one to do X_, like in your example. And it directly relates to the question here. Why do you think it doesn't? – St.Antario Jan 28 '15 at 04:23
  • @St.Antario: As I said, I think questions like that belong on ELL. There's the pattern I want [him] to leave, where if the subject for the verbal clause (him in that example) isn't specified then by implication it's the same as the subject of the main verb (I want me/myself* to leave). The key issue, as initially made by John, is Who is doing the wanting/inserting and why aren't they referred to in the sentence?* I don't know, because it's not the kind of stuff they teach native speakers in school, but I'd guess it must be explicitly specified if it's not the main subject. – FumbleFingers Jan 28 '15 at 13:12

2 Answers2

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Such data structures don't allow the insertion of any kind of objects.

Such data structures don't allow us to insert any kind of objects.

Such data structures don't allow inserting any kind of objects.

Community
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adityasrivastav
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Not sure if gerund is being alluded here. 'Inserting' is not necessarily a verb! There need not be any doubts any 'ing-verb', which is quite common in gerund.

Raghuraman R
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    @Raghuraman This post contains two comments and no answers. I am recommending deletion. –  Jan 27 '15 at 06:09
  • Please support your answer with sources. That makes your answer stronger, and more likely to be viewed as correct. Otherwise, even if it's correct, it's likely to be viewed as only opinion. The site tour and the help center will give you guidance on how to use this site. – anongoodnurse Jan 27 '15 at 07:03