Can you explain the difference? English grammar.?

Question

1) he turned a quick circle, BRANDISHING his blade to keep the guardsmen at bay.

2) he turned a quick circle, and BRANDISHED his blade to keep the guardsmen at bay.

and

3) Hitler hurled his thanks against Bastogne, HOPING to break through and take Antwerp, the allies' chief port.

4) Hitler hurled his thanks against Bastogne, and HOPE to break through and take Antwerp, the allies' chief port.

Answer 1

In 1, he is brandishing his sword as he turns a circle (at the same time), whereas in 2 it sounds like he brandished his sword after he turned.

With the second pair of sentences (i think you meant 'tanks' rather than 'thanks', I don't think Hitler was the thankful sort!), number 4 should say '..and HOPED to break through..' and then both sentences mean basically the same thing but sentence 3 makes more sense grammatically and stylistically.  

Usually in English (-ing) on the end of a verb means the action is ongoing or, in the case of examples 1 and 3, happening at the same time as the action in the first part of the sentence (before the comma).  

The (-ed) on the end of the verb usually means that the action has been completed, in the past.

It's not really to do with being more poetic, it's to do with time (for example, I'm TYPING this right now, but by the time u read it I TYPED it).

I hope that's a bit clearer, grammar is confusing!

Answer 2

it has nothing to do with poetics ways of expression...

it's a pure grammar

-- ing = present participle, usually shows the action back-grounding another action

look at your examples

1) he turned a quick circle, BRANDISHING his blade to keep the guardsmen at bay.

the long process: brandishing his blade

the short action: turned a quick circle

so imagine, he was brandishing his blade (brandishing and brandishing and brandishing) while suddenly -- woosh -- and turned a quick circle

2) he turned a quick circle, and BRANDISHED his blade to keep the guardsmen at bay.

here are two consequent actions:

_first_ he turned and _then_ he brandished

-----

3) Hitler hurled his thanks against Bastogne, HOPING to break through and take Antwerp, the allies' chief port.

hoping = background action for "hurled his thanks"

4) Hitler hurled his thanks against Bastogne, and HOPE to break through and take Antwerp, the allies' chief port.

here you wrote a mistake... it should be "hoped"

you don't understand this part of grammar because you avoid using grammar textbooks... :D

Answer 3

Very basic grammar, "ing"  present tense, "ed"  past tense.  Writers are encouraged to use present or future tenses as it makes the writing active and therefore more engaging to the reader.

Answer 4

The present progressive "-ing" form of a verb, shows present tense. It makes the reader feel as though they are there with the narrator at the actually time of the event, not just reading about it after the fact. It's a small mental thing that writer can use to keep the reader more interested in what is happening, compared to just what happened.

Answer 5

The difference is subtle.  

In examples 1 and 3, the -ing ending implies that the -ing action was happening at the same time as the preceding clause.  In other words, he was brandishing at the same time as he turned a quick circle.

In example 2, the time sequence is different, he turned a circle, and then brandished after he was done turning a circle.

Example 4 is not grammatically correct.