'Go for a swim' and 'go swimming
What is the difference between 'go for a swim' and 'go swimming'? Actually I thought I knew it but because of the definition by some dictionaries, I got confused. Please help me out.
Cf. swim [countable]
a period of time that you spend swimming:
Let's go for a swim.
Why do we have to think about a period of time there? Thank you so much as usual and have a good day.
The dictionary refers to time because "go for a swim" is a broader, more general usage than is "go swimming".
When I say "let's go for a swim," I am really saying "let's spend some time where our main activity is swimming but we might also sunbathe, talk, and hang out in and around the water." It is a broader, general statement.
If I say "let's go swimming," I'm still saying more or less the same thing, BUT the statement has a greater focus on swimming alone.
There is no "rule" of grammar that tells us this subtle difference. It is something you learn as you use the language.
|link comment||answered Nov 24 '12 at 15:19 Jeff Pribyl Grammarly Fellow|
I go swimming. Here, go is an intransitive verb and swimming is a gerund. Swimming is acting as an adverb in your sentence. In the first sentence, I go for a swim, swim is acting as a noun. Swimming is a direct object
You can also say, I go jogging/I go for a jog
I go walking/I go for a walk and so on.
Please go through this website for the better understanding.
|link comment||answered Nov 24 '12 at 05:09 sanjay Expert|
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