WHAT HE DID WAS ... TO LEAVE / LEAVING ??

Witam wszystkich!

no właśnie... jak w temacie, Czy jest jakaś różnica pomiędzy:

What he did was TO LEAVE the window open.

a

What he did was LEAVING the window open.

??

little help ? ;p

IMO both examples are wrong.
What he did was TO LEAVE the window open.

Disagree. In pesudo-clefts the complement usually appears in the form of the infinitive clause
( ‘to’ is optional) or just a noun phrase.

But with the gerund as a complement in the second one it could be of marginal acceptance if left unchaged, I guess. The verb in the wh-clause asks for the -ing form too like “ What he was DOING was LEAVING the door open ( exception with ‘be going to” in the wh-clause, then there’s no clashing) But then again, I don’t like this second one in this form either as I get the impression of some’ momentary act’ for the ‘leaving the door open’, hence the “jarring” on my part.
There’s nothing wrong with ‘leaving the door open as a nominal gerund ( as a subject ) but it smells a bit ‘fishy’ in the verb act.

Maybe I’m wrong though as for this ‘punctual’ feeling for ‘leaving the door open’.

p.s. firef**k is running like crazy today ..or maybe it’s me who’s gotten one too many, haha

Ja sie kierowalem tym przykladem:
I smiled at her.
I did smile at her.
What I did was smile at her.

Like I said 'to' is optional and the gerund is of doubtful acceptability if there's no match in the wh-clause. When the wh-clause is perfect and the complement has its matching past it's even bigger no-no as in , say, ' *What he's done is smiled at her."

All/ What he did was go...