1

I have already used structures such as "I don't like him singing the song" or "I don't like his singing the song". It dates back to years age when I learned it. So I wonder if I can use the following structure:

In these stories, the reader still expects the story to continue and receives no sign of the story ending.

where, I refer to ending as a gerund. I am quite tempted to use this sentence and it sounds right. However, I don't know if It is correct grammatically and why if so?

|improve this question
  • 1
    Ending is a noun, why should it be a gerund in your sentence? or ..receives no singn that the story is ending! – user66974 Oct 30 '14 at 8:33
  • 2
    It's perfectly grammatical and idiomatic, though the triple use of the word "story" might draw too much attention to the text rather than the message; a native speaker might use pronouns in place of one or more of the "stories" (e.g. "... its ending"). – Dan Bron Oct 30 '14 at 8:34
  • It's fine. "ending" = "coming to an end" here. Why the doubt? – Kris Oct 30 '14 at 8:57
  • @josh there's more than one error in your reasoning. – Kris Oct 30 '14 at 9:00
  • 1
    A gerund is a verb used as a noun, e.g. At the ending of an era, a new one starts. But I am not clear that 'I see no sign of the story ending' is a gerund. How can ending be a noun in that phrase? – WS2 Oct 30 '14 at 9:06
1

A useful way to tell whether an -ing form is a noun or a verb is to see whether it would need an adjective or an adverb to modify it. Sometimes it's ambiguous, but not here. "...receives no sign of the story sudden ending"* plainly sounds wrong, whereas "...receives no sign of the story suddenly ending" is fine. "Ending" in that sentence needs an adverb, not an adjective, so it's unambiguously a verb, not a noun. It's not a gerund.

|improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.