In the sentence "baking is fun," what part of speech is "baking"?
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3It might help you to look up what a gerund is.– DavoSep 12, 2019 at 17:41
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1@Davo Few grammarians use the term nowadays as it's defined in conflicting ways. ACGEL suggests a noun-verb cline here for ing-forms, while CGEL lumps and uses the term 'gerund-participle'. Note that 'Baking bread is fun' is equally grammatical.– Edwin AshworthSep 12, 2019 at 17:57
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@EdwinAshworth Thanks, I actually learned about gerunds on this site (as far as I can remember).– DavoSep 12, 2019 at 18:26
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2 Answers
This is a gerund: a participle (a form of verb) being used as a noun.
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2Hello, JB. That's what I was taught 55 years ago. But there are other modern analyses; look at the cited duplicate and other posts under the label-of-convenience 'gerund'. Sep 12, 2019 at 18:10
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I'd suggest looking at this answer/thread for a gradience approach, this say as an introduction to participle-'gerund' lumping, and this for the added complication of adjectivity. Sep 13, 2019 at 9:55
Baking is fun
is strictly speaking ambiguous, though verb preferred.
Noun interpretation can be forced by adjectival premodification, as in "Occasional baking is fun."
You didn't ask but likewise with, for example, "I like baking": verb preferred but noun can't be ruled out.
