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"Coming less than a year after the ignominious US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Moscow's absorption of Ukraine would have further undermined the credibility of US as a global power. "

This is excerpt from a english news paper.

Have "coming" been used in this sentence as participle or gerund or participle preposition?

I think it is not a participle here, because it doesn't qualify any noun here.Please help me understand!

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  • This is a metaphorical use of come, meaning 'happening at some (particular) time'. You can call it a participle, it's certainly not a gerund, and I've never heard of "participle preposition". Who in the world taught you that?
    – John Lawler
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 16:53
  • As John says, it can only be a present participle heading a non-finite clause. Functionally, it's a supplementary adjunct, so it doesn't modify anything.
    – BillJ
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 17:30
  • @John Lawler,' barring, concerning,considering, notwithstanding, pending, regarding, respecting etc are used absolutely without noun so distinguished as participial prepositions.
    – Ansh
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 17:37
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    Yes, those items are prepositions since they do not have understood subjects. But "coming" does have an understood subject in your example sentence, i.e. "Moscow's absorption of Ukraine ...".
    – BillJ
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 17:55

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If you look to what "Coming less than a year after the ignominious US withdrawal from Afghanistan," does in the sentence, it can be seen to be a reduced relative clause that modifies "Moscow's absorption of Ukraine"

"Moscow's absorption of Ukraine, which came less than a year after the ignominious US withdrawal from Afghanistan, would have further undermined the credibility of US as a global power.

This makes "coming" a participle.

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  • That's a weird one, GB!
    – BillJ
    Commented Feb 1, 2023 at 17:39

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