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The struggle for women's rights—the rights that establish the same social, economic, political status for women as for men—began with 18th century during a period known as the Age of Enlightenment.

In this sentence, should we use "establish" or "establishing"? and why?

Hellion
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Hung nguyen
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    It is rights that establish or rights establishing. Our sister site for English Language Learners may be of interest to you. – choster Mar 27 '15 at 01:37
  • The fact that you don't know which to choose means that most probably you don't know their meaning and functionality in your native language. Clarify that first, then think about something like this. Enter a translation forum Your_language-English and ask for translations of these sentences, if you don't have a local teacher good enough to explain these to you. – Marius Hancu Mar 27 '15 at 01:57

1 Answers1

2

Think about these model sentences:

  1. These rights establish women's status.

  2. These rights are those that establish women's status.

  3. These rights are there, establishing women's status.

In the last sentence, "establishing" is used in an adverbial clause. This is a typical application for an ing-form such as "establishing."

In 1, "establish" is a main verb, and its form (in the "indicative mood") is appropriate for that. In 2, you have the same in the relative subordinate. You can't use an ing-form in such constructs.

If this is more than you understand, please go and ask someone for a translation in your own language (both for sentences and my comments). Sorry, I will not explain them to you, as they are all pretty basic.

Marius Hancu
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