16
votes
Is "solutioning" a correct word?
First, this is a specialist term. Much like vocabulary in medicine, engineering, math and sciences, software development, etc. The same term may be used across these domains with radically different ...
- 342
10
votes
Is "running" a gerund or a participial adjective?
In your examples, "enlightening" is best seen as an adjective and "running" as a VP comprising a gerund-participle form of the verb as head.
Taking "running" first: it fails the usual tests for ...
- 12.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Are these parts of speech correct?
It's much easier to do parts of speech if we don't confuse them with grammatical relations/syntactic functions , and if we don't get distracted by inflections. A verb is still a verb, regardless of ...
- 45.1k
9
votes
Is "running" a gerund or a participial adjective?
tl;dr
Despite running being in origin the -ING inflection of the verb to run, in your “a running experiment” example, it is no longer a verb and therefore ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ be either a gerund or a participle ...
- 134k
8
votes
How many parts of speech can a word be at the same time?
Yes
There are constructions called zeugmas (after Greek ζεῦγμα, 'a yoking') where a word or phrase is intentionally made to apply to two or more others in a sentence despite functioning differently ...
- 10.2k
8
votes
Is the sentence "Queueing is so thoughtful of you." grammatically correct?
Nothing wrong with that sentence, 'Queueing' here is a gerund, essentially a noun.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gerund
- 1,757
8
votes
"Sending off a balloon": verb or noun?
This form of the verb is conventionally called a gerund. From the outside, a gerund works partly like a noun, because it can be the object of a verb, just like a normal noun:
Agnes suggested sending ...
7
votes
Why 'doing' after 'look forward to'?
The key to understanding this usage is the preposition “to” which comes after the expression “look forward:”
Look forward to something means to be pleased or excited that it is going to happen. ...
- 67.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Is "programming" not a noun?
I never used the terms "gerund" and "participle" when I was learning syntax, nor when I was teaching it, so I think we could easily do without those terms. However, on the other hand, I don't see a ...
- 17.2k
7
votes
Accepted
When to use a gerund or an infinitive after "is"?
Unfortunately, the linked answer is very vague, and not correct. It does point out correctly that gerunds are more common as subjects than infinitives. But it certainly doesn't provide any rule that ...
- 107k
7
votes
How many parts of speech can a word be at the same time?
How about "splashing is forbidden?" Splashing seems to function as either a noun or a verb.
It could be modified by an adverb to fit the verb test:
Loudly splashing is forbidden.
Or it could ...
- 22.3k
7
votes
"I hate Jill singing those songs." = "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs."?
I would interpret them differently.
"I hate Jill singing those songs" implies that you hate her actions (singing) when she sings those songs.
Whereas "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs" ...
- 134
7
votes
Possessives with gerunds
You're tripping up on terminology, which is understandable since it's hard to find reliable information about English grammar, especially online. Everybody uses their own terms, with whatever meanings ...
- 107k
6
votes
Accepted
Difference between gerund and present participle
The distinction between a participle and a gerund is troublesome. It looks as if the difference is to do with parts of speech or something similar. In fact, the real distinction has to do with the ...
- 45.1k
6
votes
Accepted
When double "l" is considered American English?
You have to keep in mind that <l> and <ll> are both extremely common in English, regardless of region. For example, bill is always spelled <bill>, and nil is always spelled <nil&...
- 15.1k
6
votes
Accepted
How many parts of speech can a word be at the same time?
ᴛʟ;ᴅʀ
Is it ever possible for a sentence to have a word in it
that is simultaneously more than one single part of speech
in that sentence, under the same parse and meaning?
So, if a ...
- 107k
6
votes
Confusion with pronouns proceeding gerunds
So we took our time getting back, [him telling me how glad he was that
he'd been able to give the woman what she deserved].
The verb "telling" is non-finite so it's a subordinate clause, ...
- 12.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Indirect objects that answer the question "by whom"
Your English teacher should cut wood but not teach English.
There are two special verb constructions with accusative (= direct object in English) + a verb form. (Actually there are more but I don't ...
- 13.8k
5
votes
How many parts of speech can a word be at the same time?
Since the same words can be adjectives and adverbs, sentences could be constructed where the word modifies a noun and a verb:
She is and runs fast.
While others cheat, my children are and play ...
- 10.6k
5
votes
"can't do anything except eating" vs. "can't do anything except eat"
It seems the answer (in part) is found in the modal verb can; modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would) accept only bare infinitive verbs.
A. My dog ...
- 90.3k
5
votes
Is "Illegal dumping" a gerund or a noun? What about "occasional flooding"?
No, "dumping" is not a gerund. As @BillJ says in his comment above, in your example "dumping" is a noun. I would call it a "derived nominal" from the verb "dump". It is shown to be a noun in your ...
- 17.2k
5
votes
Use of gerunds after subjects
"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' ...
- 141
5
votes
How do you sentence diagram a gerund when it does not act as the verb or the subject?
it's [worth fighting for]
"Worth" is an adjective here, with the subordinate "fighting" clause functioning as its complement.
The missing complement of "for" is "it&...
- 12.2k
4
votes
Using gerund while listing actions in the past
The boys had been bulling her again -- they, hid her things and dumped her backpack into a muddy puddle just outside school grounds.
I hope your editor didn't return it like that. It's rubbish. Apart ...
- 37.1k
4
votes
Why 'doing' after 'look forward to'?
"look forward to" takes a noun. "drink" is a verb. So we take gerund "drinking", which acts as a noun.
- 4,655
4
votes
What are these "[verb]-ing" forms called?
These are verbs heading clauses, which in turn are functioning as the Complements of prepositions. In traditional grammar (where we don't distinguish carefully between what something is and what it is ...
- 45.1k
4
votes
Is the word "beginning" here a gerund or a present participle?
It may help to untangle things if you separate the form of the word and its function. Beginning is a present participle, no matter how it's used. You can tell because it's the plain form of the verb ...
- 44.6k
4
votes
When to use the gerund form of a verb after "to"?
Do you know the way to San Jose? Now there's a sentence which contains a to but no infinitive of a verb.
Your second group are a bit like that. The gerund is a noun (from a verb). So saying I got used ...
- 64.5k
4
votes
I dislike his/him being blunt
"I dislike his being blunt" means I dislike it when he speaks in a blunt manner. "I dislike him being blunt" means I dislike this person-- when he is being blunt. Actually, the first is more ...
- 320
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