Why is this sentence incorrect? "I believe that by studying will help us understand better."

Question

Why does "by" create an error here? Please explain.

Answer 1

Let's take a look at this sentence: "I believe that by studying will help us understand better."

If you say "by studying," there needs to be an action that results from the subject (us) studying.

Understanding better isn't the resulting action, because the sentence is saying studying is helping us understand better, rather than us doing the studying being the thing that helps us understand better.

Corrected versions of this sentence include:

1. I believe that studying will help us understand better.
2. I believe that we can understand better by studying.
3. I believe that by studying, we can understand better.
4. Notice that this last 2 examples have the same words, but switched around. This is a way to check that the sentence is grammatically correct, in this case. There is no way to reposition the words in the original sentence and have it make sense.

Answer 2

Hi Michelle,

The short answer is that "by" is superfluous. It doesn't add any meaning or information to the idea being expressed.

The longer answer is that "by studying" is essentially using a verb as a noun. Also, it sounds weird. ;)

It's perfectly correct to say, "I believe that studying will help us understand better." It's grammatically correct and it's how real people speak.

Answer 3

Hi Michelle,

The reason your sentence is incorrect is because it is missing both a noun and a verb between "studying" and "will". You need to identify what will help us understand better in this case.

I.e. "I believe that by studying, knowing more information will help us learn better."

Alternatively, you can remove the adverb by from your sentence altogether and instead have it read:

I believe that studying will help us learn better--in order to make it grammatically correct.

The adverb 'by' implies that you are going to identify and describe an ensuing action in your writing, which is absent from your original sentence above.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions.