the earth isn't round or flat it is something much greater

The subject position of the sentence is realised by a Gerund-Participle clause with an explicit subject - The earth being round. The earth being round is a known fact today, but it was considered a dangerous lie when it was proposed.

Your third choice is The Earth being round. Knowing that the earth is round is a known fact, but it was considered a dangerous lie when it was proposed. So we would not use this choice as well, because it would mean something different. We want to mean the known fact = the earth is round, but with this choice what we would end up expressing is that the known fact = People or anyone for that matter (not specified) knows that the earth is round. But it would not mean what we want it to mean. If we use your fourth choice Knowing that the Earth is round, the subject position is realised by a Gerund-Participle form of verb - knowing - along with it's own complement - that the earth is round.

The earth is round is a known fact today, but it was considered a dangerous lie when it was proposed. But we need some kind of connector word to add it to the other part of the sentence. That the earth is round is a known fact today, but it was considered a dangerous lie when it was proposed.Īs you already know that a finite subordinate clause headed by a subordinator that can function as a complement in a sentence - either a subject or an object.Īs for your first choice The Earth is round, it's a finite clause.

The earth isn't round or flat it is something much greater