Sentence Construction – Using ‘Having + V3’ and ‘Having Been + V3’ to Start Sentences

gerundspassive-voicepast-participlespresent-participlessentence-construction

I am struggling to learn how to use "Having" in many cases.
Through my reading on many sites, I understand that below are grammatically correct (if not kindly let me know):

  1. Having seen my mother work tirelessly, it inspired me to study hard.
  2. Having been involved in many projects, it enabled me to understand real-world challenges.

But there are some cases that I still do not quite understand.

  1. Having seen my mother work tirelessly inspired me to study hard.
  2. Having been involved in many projects enabled me to understand real-world challenges.

I'm not sure if these examples are grammatically correct and understandable by natives or not.

Best Answer

These participle phrases can be added to a sentence to explain the reason for the main part of the sentence. I'd prefer the first example to be something like:

Having seen my mother work tirelessly, I was inspired to work hard.

In this case you can see that the subject of the sentence is "I".

OR the participle phrase can be the subject of a sentence. In this use it is sometimes called a gerund.

There is no need for these to use perfective (have+V3) you can have -ing verbs with no "have":

Eating the apple, I walked down the street.

Eating the apple helped me to think.

I am not keen on your "it" structure: I don't like "Eating the apple, it helped me to think". It's correct grammar, but the gerund pattern is more natural.

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