How can the verb risk be constructed? The following
sentence
from a student of mine seems odd:
We did not want to risk that the bat flew away.
My suggestions would be:
We did not want to risk that the bat would fly away.
My question: Is there another structure with risk?
We did not want to risk the bat flying away.
I did some research in my grammar books, but could not find any help
apart from "risk doing something."
Marianne Suesli
msuesli@compuserve.com
The idea of risk can be expressed in the following
ways:
1. As a verb, risk can be followed by a noun:
| (a) |
No, thanks. We don’t want to risk
our money on such a speculative venture. |
|
(b)
|
The fire fighter risked his life when he saved
the child in the burning house.
|
2. As a verb, risk can be followed by the noun form
of the verb, i.e., a gerund:
| (c) |
No, thanks. We don’t want to risk
losing our money on such a speculative venture. |
|
(d)
|
If you don’t leave the flood area immediately, you will
risk drowning.
|
3. With a gerund, when the subject of the gerund is different from
the subject of the main clause, you can use a possessive to clarify,
as in (e) and (f).
| (e) |
Unfortunately, our daughter-in-law doesn’t
like us. We try very hard to be kind to her and her children,
as we don’t want to risk their moving away.
(The daughter-in-law’s moving away with her children, not
the speaker’s moving away, as would be the case without
the insertion of “their”.) |
|
(f)
|
We did not want to risk the bat’s flying
away.
(The bat’s flying away, not the speaker’s flying
away, as would be the case without the insertion of “the
bat’s”.)
|
In informal usage, but certainly not in formal writing, sentence
(e) could be: “risk them moving away”; (f) could be: “risk
the bat flying away.”
4. As a noun, risk is followed by an “of”
phrase with a gerund as in (g), or a “that” clause as
in (h):
| (g) |
We did not want to take the risk of the
bat’s flying away. |
|
(h)
|
We did not want to take the risk that the bat would
fly away.
|
5. Idiomatically, risk appears in certain expressions
such as at risk of, at the risk of, at one’s own risk,
run the risk of:
|
(i)
|
He’s at risk of losing his business.
|
|
(j)
|
At the risk of incurring your anger, I’m
going to disagree with you.
|
|
(k)
|
The sign says “No lifeguard at this beach,” so
if you swim here, it will be at your own risk.
|
|
(l)
|
I didn’t want to run the risk of catching Bob’s
cold, so I canceled our date.
|