In the statement, "A man sitting next to you at a movie theater was very disruptive," what is "sitting" - a gerund, a verb, or an adjective?
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1To my knowledge, it’s none of those. It’s a participial non finite clause that describes “man”.– SeekerMay 21, 2020 at 19:46
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1The clause is "sitting next to you at a movie theater", and it's acting as an adjective, modifying "man". Precisely what it's called depends on your religion.– Hot LicksMay 21, 2020 at 19:50
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What is sitting? A man.– Ian MacDonaldMay 21, 2020 at 19:51
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2Gerunds are verbs.– tchrist ♦May 21, 2020 at 23:00
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2 Answers
"A man sitting next to you" itself is a noun phrase. The word "man" is the head noun, with 'sitting next to you' functioning as its post-modifier. In terms of grammatical form, 'sitting next to you' is a (non-finite) present participle clause. So, 'sitting' is a verb, and 'next to you' is a prepositional phrase functioning as place adverbial. The key to the question is to distinguish between two easily confused concepts 'form' and 'function'.
"Sitting" in this case is a present participle used as an adjective.
See an explanation at Medium.
You might have learned that a verb with the ending -ing is sometimes called a gerund, and gerunds can be used as both nouns and adjectives. Present participles of verbs are formed the same way, as in "I am sitting".
The site I referred to above explains that "sitting" would be a gerund used as an adjective if you were talking about a "sitting room", because the room is not doing the sitting. It is for people who want to sit somewhere. "Sitting" in your sentence is a present participle used as an adjective, because the man (the noun that "sitting" and the clause it belongs to modify) is doing the sitting himself.
answered May 21, 2020 at 19:52
