4
votes
adjective vs adverb for a gerund
"Informally" is correct, as your example with "occasionally observing" shows. Here "noting" is a gerund, not a verbal noun. Whereas verbal nouns are modified by ...
- 13.7k
4
votes
An article before gerunds
Why can't I say "He was expelled for the killing of the birds?"
You actually can say that. It isn't grammatically incorrect and it makes perfect sense. It does make it somewhat less ...
- 13.7k
3
votes
Accepted
-ing word as modifier of a noun: Verb or attributive/deverbal Noun?
Those are all attributive nouns, not adjectives let alone verbs.
You can tell because:
They cannot be used predicatively without changing the meaning. The water isn't drinking, the computer isn't ...
- 133k
3
votes
Accepted
Possessive pronoun + gerund confusion
The sentence in question
I can't prevent your being offended.
is certainly grammatical, and, as @Billj points out, it's grammatical whether or not the subject of being offended is you or your. So ...
- 107k
3
votes
"Used to play" or "was used to playing"?
What "I used to do something" means is that I did it in the past (several or many times) but I don't anymore. What "I was used to doing something" means that I was accustomed to ...
- 87k
2
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between a "gerund" and a "true noun"?
Smoking is bad for your health.
Clothing is material with which one is clothed.
The difference between these two should be obvious if you try to add an object to the verbs "smoke" and "...
- 13.7k
2
votes
-ing word as modifier of a noun: Verb or attributive/deverbal Noun?
Let's compare these examples:
(1) popularity contest
(2) popular contest
Clearly, "popularity" is a noun that modifies "contest", whereas "popular" is an adjective that ...
- 6,371
2
votes
Which verb form to use after "limits itself to"?
They have different meanings:
This article limits itself to consider...
= This article limits itself in order to consider...
This gives the purpose of limiting.
This article limits itself to ...
- 39.7k
2
votes
Accepted
Which verb form to use after "limits itself to"?
It is less problematic to investigate verbs other than 'consider', or to change the subject to reference a sentient agent:
Cambridge Dictionary gives examples only of the form
[limit] to control ...
- 79.9k
1
vote
is an apostrophe necessary for the gerund in this phrase? ('within 12 months of proceedings' commencing')
Both the ACC-ing and the POSS-ing structures are often available after prepositions / ing-clause introducers; Huang_'Distinguishing between POSS-ing and ACC-ing: evidence from 'with' / 'without')' has
...
- 79.9k
1
vote
What's the correct answer to the question? changing or to change?
They're both correct, with slightly different meanings or at least emphases:
Agriculture gave people their first experience of technology's power changing lives. (They experienced the changing of ...
- 79.9k
1
vote
much less + (verb)ing (gerund) agreement/concord
It would not be inappropriate to delete the second preposition 'to' with a second ing-clause with the same object:
There has not been much attention paid to reading, much less [Ø] really getting to ...
- 79.9k
1
vote
Cease doing/to do
I would say the question is moot, because cease is not the word to use.
Fowler (3rd Edition, ed. Burchfield, OUP 1988) has
cease. This 14c. loanword from French
is slowly yielding to stop except in a ...
- 100k
1
vote
Accepted
Does consider change all verbs to gerund until the end of the sentence?
Expanding a bit on the other answer:
You may want to consider placing the money in a more conservative portfolio and move on with life.
This sentence is fine. The conjunction "and" is here ...
- 13.7k
1
vote
Does consider change all verbs to gerund until the end of the sentence?
It's not a matter of "to the end of the sentence": it's a matter of the (semantic) scope of "consider".
In your original example, both are possible, but they have logically ...
- 76.5k
1
vote
Accepted
"Used to play" or "was used to playing"?
The cited answer on Quora is certainly wrong to claim They are both "correct". It's not normally possible in speech to distinguish (infinitive?) use to from (explicitly Past Tense) used to, ...
- 139k
1
vote
What Verbs can Gerunds Follow?
In this case, it is likely best to appeal to the wisdom of the crowd. Ngram Viewer suggests that "pioneered making" and "pioneered the making" are about equally common at present. ...
- 13.7k
1
vote
Why is "ing" used in the following sentence?
One interpretation (that "scoring" is a clause) is given in another answer. Another interpretation is that "scoring" is a gerund functioning as the object (or complement) of the ...
- 7,899
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