What I want is riding a bike.

[sierkj]

I've read 2-3 English textbooks with the grammatical structure resembling

"What I want is [verb]+ing..."

ex:
"What I want is riding a bike."
"What I want to do now is watching a movie."

This seems incorrect to me and I've had several native English speakers/teachers telling me that it is incorrect.

Can someone please help me understand this structure?

 

[jutfrank]

The book is telling you the wrong thing. You need the infinitive form of the verb, not the -ing form.

What I want is to teach you how to use cleft sentences.
What I want is for you to get a decent grammar book.

 

[5jj]

Please tell us the title of that book and the name of the author.

 

[Tarheel]

I've read two or three English textbooks....

Grammatically, that is not wrong. However, it seems a bit odd. Surely you know whether it was two or three. (If you really don't know, I suggest, "I can't remember if it was two or three."

What I want is to go home.

What I want is going home.

 

[sierkj]

Please tell us the title of that book and the name of the author.

Title: 영어 문장의 결정적 문법들

Writer: 김치훈

Publisher: 사람in

 

[emsr2d2]

Strangely enough, we don't speak Korean. Please translate the title and author's name and write them in the alphabet we use in English.

 

[sierkj]

Strangely enough, we don't speak Korean. Please translate the title and author's name and write them in the alphabet we use in English.

Title: The Crucial Grammar of English Sentences
Writer: Chihoon Kim

 

[emsr2d2]

Title: The Crucial Grammar of English Sentences
Writer Author: Chihoon Kim

Thank you. This information is always required in post #1 whenever you quote someone else's work.

 

[Flask]

I've read 2-3 English textbooks with the grammatical structure resembling

"What I want is [verb]+ing..."

ex:
"What I want is riding a bike."
"What I want to do now is watching a movie."

This seems incorrect to me and I've had several native English speakers/teachers telling me that it is incorrect.

Can someone please help me understand this structure?

The structure of What I want is riding a bike can be used when What means the thing that:

What I bought is lying in the trunk. [= The thing that I bought is lying in the trunk.]

The above example is NOT a ("clefted") rearrangement of I bought lying in the trunk, which is ungrammatical, as is I want riding a bike. When, however, the verb does accept an -ing complement, the rearrangement is often OK:

What he remembers is answering her telephone call. [= He remembers answering her telephone call.]

 

[Tarheel]

In my humble opinion that's awkward at best.