Gerunds present participles and other -ing forms Gerunds, participles and forms in -ing Using gerunds and participles in English 1. The different types of word ending in -ing : The English language does not use many grammatical "endings", but some of those it does use have several different functions. The ending -ing is one of them. Words ending in -ing can be gerunds, verbal nouns, or present participles. Distinguishing (= gerund) between these, and using them correctly is not always easy – until you understand these three simple rules. The gerund is a verb which is used as if it were a noun. Since it is a verb, it can not be qualified by an adjective , nor preceded by an article , but it can be modified by an adverb and take a complement (Examples 1 & 2 below). A verbal noun is a noun formed formed from a verb; some of these end in -ing. It can take an determiner , and be qualified by adjectives. (Examples 3 & 4) A participle is an adjective or part of a participial phrase qualifying a noun or a pronoun. (Examples 5 et 6).

It is also used to form the progressive forms of verb tenses (Examples 7 & 8). Words in -ing: Gerund, noun or present participle Seeing is believing. Living in new York is exciting but rather expensive The book was easy reading ! He managed to make a good living. Smiling, the lady told them they'd won the big prize. I heard them arguing last night. I'm taking my brother to the station tonight The man was phoning his friend, when the lights went out. 2 The gerund in English : the verb used as a noun The gerund in English has the form of the present participle in -ing. It is the most common form of the verb used as a noun, and can be the subject (examples 1 to 7), or the object of a sentence (8 & 9) , or follow prepositions (10 to 13) Examples: This article really needs rewriting. He drove two hundred miles without ever stopping. I look forward to seeing you again next week. I'm thinking of painting my house. I started by carefully turning off the electricity Do you mind shutting the window, please ? Will you consider taking the job? I've really enjoyed meeting you.

As the examples above show, the gerund is used as if it were a noun, but not in the same way as a noun. In other words, it keeps its verbal qualities. Since it is not used like a noun, it cannot be qualified by an adjective; on the contrary, it keeps some of the essential features that distinguish a verb, notably that it can take a direct object (examples 2, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14 above) , and/or be qualified by an adverb (examples 4 ,5 , 12 & 13). When gerunds are used as verbal complements (second verbs following a first verb), as in examples 8 and 9 above, they can often be rephrased using an infinitive instead of the gerund. However a few verbs require a gerund, not an infinitive (Examples 14 - 16 above). The most common of these are admit, consider, dislike, deny, enjoy, finish, involve, miss, mind, suggest, ► Compare : uses of the infinitive 3.

Verbal nouns: nouns that are derived from verbs There are a large number of ways of creating a noun from a verb: among the most common of these are words that use the root form of the verb and a noun ending such as -ment (as in achievement), -ance (as in disappearance), -ion (as in confirmation) , or -ing (as in The changing of the guard.) You can see that these -ing forms really are nouns, not verbs, as they can be qualified by adjectives. That is a very nice painting We're going to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. After a slow beginning, the show got a bit more lively. This story has a rather unexpected ending.. The commission demanded the breaking up of the company into two separate units. The last meeting was not very productive. 4. Areas of possible confusion Sometimes it is difficult to decide if a word is a gerund or a verbal noun; and in fact, the quality of the -ing word can change according to context. Look at these examples: Examples: For musicians, practising is essential. For musicians, practising an instrument is essential For musicians, regular practising is essential. For musicians, regular practising an instrument is essential.

For musicians, regularly practising an instrument is essential. For musicians, the regular practising of an instrument is essential. In examples 1 and 2 above, practising is clearly a gerund; in example 2 it is followed by a complement, an instrument. But in example 3 it is preceeded by an adjective regular; so this time it is being used differently, as a verbal noun. We can verify this if we try to add a complement, as in example 4. It is not possible. We cannot say "For musicians, regular practising an instrument is essential.". An -ing word cannot simultaneously be preceeded by an adjective and followed by a direct complement. Other solutions are needed; the ing word must either be used as a gerund, or as a verbal noun, but not both at once. So while example 4 does not work, there are two solutions. Example 5 uses the word practising as a gerund, as in examples 1 and 2; and as it is a gerund, it is modified by an adverb, regularly. Finally, example 6 rephrases example 5, but using practising as a verbal noun, not a gerund.

We can see that it is a noun, as it is now part of a noun phrase introduced by an article and including an adjective. 5. Present participles Participles are adjectives; they can either stand alone, before or after their noun, as the situation requires, or else they can be part of an adjectival phrase. Participles are often used to make a shortened form of a subordinate clause (Examples 1 and 3 below): these elliptical phrases may come before the noun or pronoun (e.g. Looking out of the window, I saw ....) or after it (e.g. I saw the tornado coming). However, when the participle phrase is a shortened form of a relative clause, it MUST come after the noun (examples 4 & 7). Present particples are also used to form the progressive forms of present and past tenses (Examples 8 - 10) Looking out of the window, I saw the tornado coming. In the course of the coming week, I have three interviews to go to. I saw the child standing in the middle of the road. The people living next door are very friendly. 4b The living next door people are very friendly is impossible This is a seriously interesting book.

The winning team will go through to the finals. The team winning in the first round will go through to the finals. I was looking out of the window when I saw the tornado At the moment, he's living in Bristol. The company has been doing very well for the past two years. Active and passive Gerunds and participles are most commonly used in the active voice; they can however be easily used in the passive too. Examples 1 - 3 : gerunds, examples 4 & 5 participles. Examples: Being seen is more important than being heard. He drove two hundred miles without ever being stopped. They began their holiday by getting hopelessly lost. Everyone watched the building getting demolished. At the moment they're being sold at half price. grammaticality - What's the difference between an -ing noun and a real noun - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange What's the difference between an -ing noun and a real noun up vote 4 down vote favorite 1 Some verbs have corresponding nouns. Also, an '-ing' can be added to create a new noun. For example: Develop is a verb. Developing is also a noun. So are the sentences given below both right?

They thought that Tom would bring a big development for this small town. They thought that Tom would bring a big developing for this small town. up vote 6 down vote accepted "developing" is not a noun. It's the form of a verb called the gerund, and it has a dual nature, -one of a verb and one of a substantive. Its verbal nature is shown by a) its abililty to take a direct and an indirect object. b) tha fact that it can have a subject (I was proud of him being my son) c) is ability to appear in different tenses (he boasted of his having killed her) Its substantival nature is shown by a) its ability to be the object of a preposition (by doing so) b) the fact that it can take a plural ending (such going-ons) c) it can take an attributive adjective (his dangerous driving) d) its ability to take a definite or an indefinite article (a hanging was once a public amusement) The active form of a gerund is often used in a passive sense (your hair wants cutting, the garden needs weeding) In parallel cases a noun ending in e.g.

-ment would normally imply the result of an action, the product of an action while the corresponding gerund would refer to the action itself. Take for instance "extension" vs. "extent" or "export" vs. "exportation. A gerund would normally have in it the verbal nature which the corresponding noun need/does not have. Compare "The king's arrival was met with much enthusiasm" vs. "We are quited tired of his usual arriving very late". In the case of "developing" one might compare "The new president aims at developing the country's poor-relief system" vs. "The development of AIDS in Africa has proved to be one of the biggest tragedies in the Third World" up vote 8 down vote It's true that you can sometimes generate a noun by adding -ing, like with "an understanding". It's not a universal rule, but in general, you can generate a noun that refers to the process of the verb — "a developing" sounds odd to me, but other examples, like "a ripening" (as in we can observe the ripening of the fruit) work for me.

But my main point is that even if you can generate an -ing noun from a verb, there's no reason to assume it would mean the same thing as a noun ending with -ment generated from the same verb. To respond directly to your first sentence, it's not that some verbs have a corresponding noun, but rather that many verbs have many corresponding nouns. If they always meant the same thing, we wouldn't need different suffixes. up vote 2 down vote You cannot use any word anywhere you feel like, while writing in English. That is the sophistication of English language. There are certain terms to describe certain moods. The noun form of verbs by adding "-ing" are called gerunds. These should be used at the appropriate situations. For example, you cannot say, Swim is his hobby. You have to say, Swimming is his hobby. Whereas you can definitely say, I am going for a swim. Here you cannot say, I am going for a swimming. Similarly, in your sentence, They thought that Tom would bring a big development for this small town is the correct one. Now if you ask, When do I use gerunds and not the "normal noun" form? Well, that comes with practice.

up vote 1 down vote It's OK to use developing as a noun (for example, developing is one of the stages of the photographic process), and the second sentence here is grammatical. The reason it sounds strange, to this native speaker at least, is partly because the whole concept is a little fuzzy†, but mostly because we have a perfectly good and common alternative to developing: development. In cases where there is no alternative, the sentence sounds fine: They thought that Tom would bring a big restructuring for this small town. † Does development mean the general improvement and growth of the town, or does it refer to a single major development such as a shopping mall. If it is the latter, then developing is not possible. English in Use/Glossary - Wikibooks, open books for an open world English in Use/Glossary Absolute — Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government. Abstract — Considered apart from any application to a particular object. Abstract noun — A noun that denotes an idea, emotion, feeling, quality or other abstract or intangible concept. Active verb — A verb that expresses action as distinct from mere existence or state. Adjective — A word that modifies a noun or describes a noun’s referent.

Adjunct — A clause in a sentence that amplifies its meaning. Adverb — A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or various other types of words, phrases, and clauses. Adverb of cause — Adverbs of cause are why, wherefore and therefore. Adverb of degree — Adverbs of degree are those which answer to the question, how much? how little? or to the idea of more or less. Adverb of manner — Adverbs of manner are those which answer to the question, how? or, by affirming, denying, or doubting, show how a subject is regarded. Adverb of place — Adverbs of place indicate where something happens. Adverb of time — Adverbs of time are those which answer to the question, when? how long? how soon? or how often? Affirmative — An answer that shows agreement or acceptance. Agreement — Rules that exist in many languages that force some parts of a sentence to be used or inflected differently depending on certain attributes of other parts. Antecedent — A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun.

Aorist — A temporal feature of the verb which denotes the speaker's standpoint of the event described by the verb, as from outside of the event and seeing it as a completed whole. Aphaeresis — The loss of letters or sounds from the beginning of a word, such as the development of special from especial. Apocope — The loss or omission of a sound or syllable from the end of a word. Apposition — A construction in which one noun or noun phrase is placed with another as an explanatory equivalent, both having the same syntactic function in the sentence. Appositive — Of or being in apposition. Archaism — The adoption or imitation of archaic words or style. Arrangement — Relative position of words in a sentence. Article — A part of speech that indicates, specifies and limits a noun (a, an, or the in English). Attribute — A word that qualifies a noun. Auxiliary — A verb that accompanies the main verb in a clause in order to make distinctions in tense, mood, voice or aspect. Capital — An uppercase letter. Cardinal adjective — A cardinal number used as an adjective.

Case — A category of nouns, pronouns, or adjectives, specialized (usually by inflection) to indicate a particular syntactic relation to other words in a sentence. Clause — A word or group of words ordinarily consisting of a subject and a predicate. Collective noun — A noun which, though singular, refers to a group of things or animals. Common adjective — A common adjective is any ordinary epithet, or adjective denoting quality or situation: as, good, bad, peaceful, warlike, eastern, western, outer, inner. Common noun — A noun that can be preceded by an indefinite article, and denotes any member, or all members of a class; an ordinary noun such as dog or city. Comparative degree — Adverbial or adjectival forms modified by more or ending in er, used when comparing two things. Comparison — The ability of adjectives and adverbs to form three degrees. Compound — A lexeme that consists of more than one stem; for example laptop, formed from lap and top.

Compound adjective — A compound adjective is one that consists of two or more words joined together, either by the hyphen or solidly: as, nut-brown, laughter-loving, four-footed; threefold, lordlike, lovesick. Compound personal — A compound personal pronoun. compound personal pronouns are myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself. Compound relative — Compound relatives are whoever, whosoever, whichever, whichsoever, whatever, whatsoever. Compound sentence — A compound sentence is a sentence which is composed of at least two independent clauses. Conjugation — In some languages, one of several classifications of verbs according to what inflections they take. Conjunction — A word used to join other words or phrases together into sentences. Conjunctive adverb — An adverb that connects two clauses. Consonant — A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the dominant sound of a syllable, the dominant sound generally being a vowel. Continuous tense — Expressing an ongoing action or state. Declension — A way of categorizing nouns, pronouns, or adjectives according to the inflections they receive.

Defective verb — A verb with an incomplete conjugation; for example, one that can only be conjugated in certain persons and numbers. Definite article — An article that introduces a noun and specifies it as the particular noun that is being considered; in English, the only definite article is the. Diaeresis — A diacritic placed over a vowel letter indicating that it is sounded separately, usually forming a distinct syllable, as in naïve, Noël, Brontë. Ellipsis — The omission of a grammatically required word or phrase that can be implied. Enallage — The substitution of one grammatical form for another one. Finite verb — A verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. First-future tense — The first-future tense is that which expresses what will take place hereafter. Gender — A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech), such as masculine, feminine, neuter or common. Gerund — A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently.

Government — That power which one word has over another, to cause it to assume some particular modification. Grammar — A system of rules and principles for speaking and writing a language. Hyperbaton — An inversion of the usual or logical order of words or phrases, for emphasis or poetic effect. Imperative mood — The grammatical mood expressing an order. Indefinite article — A word preceding a noun to indicate that the noun is new or unknown. In English it can be a (before a consonant sound) or an (before a vowel sound) in the singular; in the plural an article isn't used at all, or the pronoun some is used instead. Independent clause — A clause that can stand by itself as a grammatically viable simple sentence. Indicative mood — The mood of a verb used in ordinary factual or objective statements. Infinitive — The uninflected form of a verb. In English, this is usually formed with the verb stem preceded by 'to'. Infinitive mood — The infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to. Inflection — A change in the form of a word that reflects a change in grammatical function.

Interjection — An exclamation or filled pause; a word or phrase with no particular grammatical relation to a sentence, often an expression of emotion. Interrogative — A word (pronoun, pronominal adjective, or adverb) implying interrogation, or used for asking a question: why, who, when, etc. Introductory phrase — A phrase or clause that introduces a sentence. Irregular comparison — Comparison of adjectives which cannot be compared regularly. Irregular verb — A verb that does not follow the normal rules for its conjugation. Italic characters — A typeface in which the letters slant to the right. Letter — A symbol in an alphabet. Liquid — An l or r sound. Mimesis — The representation of aspects of the real world, especially human actions, in literature and art. Mood — A verb form that depends on how its containing clause relates to the speaker’s or writer’s wish, intent, or assertion about reality. Morphology — The forms of word formation. Multiplicative adjective — An adjective which expresses the multiplicity. Mute — A letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation.

Neuter verb — A verb that expresses neither action nor passion, but simply being, or a state of being. Nominative — Giving a name; naming; designating; said of that case or form of a noun which stands as the subject of a finite verb. Non-finite verb — A verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person. Note of exclamation — Punctuation used to denote excitement, surprise or shock; exclamation point. Note of interrogation — The punctuation mark "?", used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question. Noun — A word that can be used to refer to a person, place, thing, quality, or idea; one of the basic parts of speech in many languages, including English. Number — Of a word or phrase, the state of being singular, dual or plural, shown by inflection. Numeral — A numeral adjective. Numeral adjective — An adjective that expresses a definite number: as, one, two, three, four, five, six.

Object — The noun phrase which is an internal complement of a verb phrase or a prepositional phrase. In a verb phrase with a transitive action verb, it is typically the receiver of the action. Objective — Of, or relating to a noun or pronoun used as the object of a verb. Ordinal adjective — An ordinal number used as an adjective. Paragoge — The addition of a sound, syllable or letter to the end of a word, either through natural development or as a grammatical function. Parenthetical phrase — A phrase in the sentence which is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Parsing — To resolve into its elements, as a sentence, pointing out the several parts of speech, and their relation to each other by government or agreement; to analyze and describe grammatically. Participial adjective — A participle used as an adjective, such as drowning in the drowning man and drowned in the drowned man. Participle — A form of a verb that may function as an adjective or noun. Part of speech — The function a word or phrase performs in a sentence or phrase. Passive voice — A grammatical voice in which the subject receives the action of a transitive verb.

Past participle — A past participle is usually identical to the verb's past tense form, though in irregular verbs the two usually differ. Past perfect tense — Tense of verb conjugated by adding had before the past participle of a verb. Perfect tense — A tense that expresses action completed at the present time; in English it is formed by using the present tense of have with a past participle. Period — The punctuation mark (“.”) indicating the end of a sentence or marking an abbreviation. Person — A linguistic category used to distinguish between the speaker of an utterance and those to whom or about whom he is referring; implemented in most languages by a variety of pronouns. Personal — Denoting person; as, a personal pronoun. Personification — A figure of speech, prosopopeia, in which an inanimate object or an abstraction is given human qualities. Phrase — A word or group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence, usually consisting of a head, or central word, and elaborating words. Pleonasm — A phrase in which one or more words are redundant as their meaning is expressed elsewhere in the phrase.

Plural — A word in the form in which it potentially refers to something other than one person or thing; and other than two things if the language has a dual form. Possessive — A pronoun in the possessive case. Potential mood — A verbal construction or form stating something is possible or probable. Predicate — The part of the sentence (or clause) which states something about the subject. Prefix — That which is prefixed; especially one or more letters or syllables added to the beginning of a word to modify its meaning; as, pre in prefix, con in conjure. Preposition — A closed class of non-inflecting words typically employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word. Propositional phrase — A phrase that has both a preposition and its object or complement; may be used as an adjunct or a modifier. Present participle — The present participle is identical in form to the gerund. Present tense — The form of language used to refer to an event, transaction, or occurrence which is happening now (or at the present time), or an object that currently exists.

Preterit — The preterite tense, simple past tense: the grammatical tense that determines the specific initiation or termination of an action in the past. Progressive form — A form of a verb in which its gerund (or present participle) is used with any form of the verb to be. Examples: I am defining. It had been snowing. Pronominal — Of, pertaining to, resembling, or functioning as of a pronoun. Pronominal compound — An adjective herein, therein, wherein. Pronoun — A type of noun that refers anaphorically to another noun or noun phrase, but which cannot ordinarily be preceded by a determiner and rarely takes an attributive adjective. Proper adjective — An adjective derived from a proper noun, such as British derived from Britain. Proper noun — The name of a particular person, place, organization or other individual entity. Prosthesis — The prepending of phonemes at the beginning of a word without changing its morphological structure, as in nother from other. Quotation — A fragment of a human expression that is being referred to by somebody else. Radical — Of or pertaining to the root of a word.

Redundant verb — A verb which has two forms for past tense. Regimen — A syntactical relation between words, as when one depends on another and is regulated by it in respect to case or mood; government. Regular comparison — Adjectives are regularly compared, when the comparative degree is expressed by adding er, and the superlative, by adding est to them. Regular verb — A verb which conjugates regularly. In English, a verb which uses an ed suffix to form its past participle. Relation — Reference of word to other words. Relative — A relative pronoun. Relative pronouns are who, which, what, that, whoever, whosoever, whichever, whichsoever, whatever, whatsoever. Remote — Not directly related. Roman characters — A serifed style of typeface. Upright, as opposed to italic. Second-future tense — The second-future tense is that which expresses what will have taken place at some future time mentioned. Semivowel — A sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel. A letter which represents a semivowel sound, such as w or y in English.

Sentence — A grammatically complete series of words consisting of a subject and predicate, even if one or the other is implied, and typically beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop. Sign — An auxiliary, suffix, etc. that modifies a word. Small letters — The minuscule or small letters (a, b, c, as opposed to the uppercase or capital letters, A, B, C). Subject — The word or word group (usually a noun phrase) that is dealt with. In active clauses with verbs denoting an action, the subject and the actor are usually the same. Subjunctive mood — A verb inflected to indicate that an act or state of being is possible, contingent or hypothetical, and not a fact. Superlative degree — The form of an adjective that expresses which of more than two items has the highest degree of the quality expressed by the adjective; in English, formed by appending est to the end of the adjective (for some short adjectives only) or putting most before it. Supposition — An assumption, conjecture, speculation or something supposed.

Syllepsis — A figure of speech in which one word simultaneously modifies two or more other words such that the modification must be understood differently with respect to each modified word; often causing humorous incongruity. Synaeresis — The contraction of two vowels into a diphthong or a long vowel. Syncope — A missing sound from the interior of a word, for example by changing cannot to can't or Hawai'i from the root name Hawaiki. Syntax — A set of rules that govern how words are combined to form phrases and sentences. Tense — Any of the forms of a verb which distinguish when an action or state of being occurs or exists. Thing sui generis — In a class of its own; one of a kind. Tmesis — The insertion of one or more words between the components of a compound word. Understood words — Words that are omitted by ellipsis. Unstressed numeral — A numeral in which one is replaced with indefinite article. Verb — A word that indicates an action, an event, or a state. Verbal — A verb form which does not function as a predicate, or a word derived from a verb.

Voice — A particular mode of inflecting or conjugating verbs, or a particular form of a verb, by means of which is indicated the relation of the subject of the verb to the action which the verb expresses. Vowel — A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable. A letter representing the sound of vowel; in English, the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Glossary of English grammar and usage terms - Grammarist Grammarist Glossary of English grammar and usage terms A Adjective : a word, phrase, or clause that describes a noun or pronoun. Adverb : a word, phrase, or clause that modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective, or other adverb. Antecedent: the noun or noun phrase to which a pronoun refers. Appositive : a noun or noun phrase that identifies or modifies the noun or pronoun that comes immediately before it—e.g., Joey, my boyfriend, wanted pizza. Article: a type of adjective used to indicate specificity. In English, the only articles are the , a , and an . Auxiliary verb : an irregular verb that provides information about another verb.

The main ones are to have and to be. B C Case: the property of a noun or pronoun that indicates how it relates to other parts of a sentence. The three cases in English are nominative, possessive, and objective. Collective noun: a count noun referring to a group—e.g., staff, band, group. Comparative: indicating that something has a quality to a greater or lesser degree than something else. For example, faster, prettier, and more equitable are comparative adjectives. Comparative adverbs usually take more. Complement: a word or phrase that completes the meaning of a verb. The main types are objects, predicate nouns, and predicate adjectives. Conjunction : a word or phrase that links words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Conjunctive adverb: an adverb that functions as a conjunction—for example, however, therefore, hence. Contraction : an abbreviation of a word or phrase formed by omitting letters, usually replacing the omitted letters with an apostrophe—e.g., can’t, we’ll, he’d. Conventional: significantly more common than alternative forms. Count noun: a noun that can be singular or plural.

D Dangler (or dangling modifier) : a modifier, especially at the beginning of a sentence, positioned to modify the wrong word or no word at all—e.g., Leaving home, the weather was nice. Direct object: the noun or pronoun referring to a person or thing acted upon directly by the action of a verb—e.g., I’m writing a book. E F First person: the person of a clause when the speaker is speaking of himself or herself. G Gerund : an –ing verb form that functions as a noun—e.g., Running is fun. Gerunds are identical to present participles, which usually function as adjectives. Grammar: the set of rules one needs to know in order to competently form sentences in a language. H I Imperative mood: the mood of a verb when its clause makes a command or a request—e.g., Read me that book. Indicative mood: the mood of a verb when its clause states a fact or opinion or asks a question—e.g., Grammar is easy. Indirect object: a noun or pronoun denoting a person or thing acted upon indirectly by the action of a verb—e.g., I gave the book to him.

Infinitive: the uninflected form of a verb, usually preceded by to. Infinitives are usually nouns—e.g., To write well is not easy. Intensifier: an adverb that amplifies the meaning of the adjective it modifies—e.g., very, quite, rather. Interjection : a short word or phrase that suddenly and briefly expresses an emotion or reaction—e.g., oh, wow, ahem. J L M Modifier: a word or phrase, especially an adjective or adverb, that modifies the meaning of another word or phrase. Mood : the quality of a verb that expresses the speaker’s attitude toward the likelihood, existence, or desirability of the verb’s action. In English, the three moods are indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. Advertisement N Nominative case: a noun’s or pronoun’s case when it is the subject or complement of a verb. Noun : a word denoting anything that can be named, usually an object, person, place, idea, or action. Number: the quality of a noun, pronoun, or verb that indicates whether it refers to a single person or thing or more than one.

O Object : a noun or pronoun that receives the action of a verb. Objective case: a noun’s or pronoun’s case when it is the object of a verb, preposition, or infinitive. P Participle : an -ed or -ing verb form used as an adjective or to form the progressive aspect or perfect tense. Past participle: the participial form of a verb usually identical to the past-tense form (ending in -ed)—though there are many irregular past participles. Perfect participle: a participle taking the form of having plus the past participle—e.g., having had, having gone. Person: the quality of a clause that indicates whom the speaker is speaking about. Phrase : a group of two or more words that function together yet have no subject or predicate. Possessive case: a noun’s or pronoun’s case when its relationship to another element in the sentence is one of ownership, association, or belonging. Predicate: the part of a clause that tells what the subject does, what is done to the subject, or what is being said about the subject. Prefix: a letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word or word element to change its meaning.

Preposition : a word that links a noun or pronoun to another type of word. Present participle: a participle ending in -ing. Pronoun : a word that stands in for a noun. Q R S Second person: the person of a clause when the speaker is speaking of the person spoken to. Sentence : a group of words expressing a complete thought and containing at least one independent clause. Standard: generally favored by editors and professional writers in moderately formal to very formal language registers. Subject: the person, place, or thing about which something is said in a clause. Suffix: a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word or word element to change its meaning. Style: a conventional or customary manner of presenting language. Different publishers, publications, editors, and authors may have different style preferences. Subjunctive mood: the mood of a verb when its clause, which is necessarily dependent, addresses conditions that are contrary to fact—e.g., If I were good at grammar, I’d be a better writer. Superlative: indicating that something, when compared with two or more other things, has a quality to the greatest or least degree.

For example, fastest, prettiest, and most equitable are superlative adjectives. Superlative adverbs usually take most. T Tense: the quality of a verb that expresses when the action occurred, occurs, or will occur. Third person: the person of a clause when the speaker is speaking of someone who is neither the speaker nor the one spoken to. U Usage: the way in which words and phrases are used by speakers of a language. V Verb : a word or phrase denoting an action. W Parts of speech | University of Technology Sydney For more help Most common errors made in students' written work often involve incorrect word formation. As we know, words can function as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions or interjections. Students often confuse between noun, adjective, adverb and verb forms and information about these have been categorised below. As many English words can have several forms, it is important to know the function of words in a sentence in order to use them correctly. A good quality dictionary will clearly show the various forms of a word and give examples of their use.

Common misunderstandings in parts of speech Below are listed 7 of the most common mistakes that students display in their academic work related to word forms/parts of speech. 1. Noun/verb confusion A noun defines or names something. A verb expresses an action, something that happens or occurs, or a mode of being. Some nouns and verbs share the same form (e.g. project, record), but usually they are different. Many nouns end in 'tion' or 'cion', 'ment' or 'ing'. Verb forms vary according mainly to person, number and tense; they can also be active or passive. Q: Is the word in your writing talking about something/someone (a noun), or is it outlining an action of some sort (a verb)? This may help you decide whether the word form you need is a noun or verb. 2. Noun/adjective confusion A noun defines or names something. An adjective qualifies or tells us more about a noun or pronoun: it can be regular, comparative or superlative. In a sentence, the qualifying adjective usually comes directly before the noun or noun phrase.

Q: Is the word in your writing talking about something/someone (a noun), or is it describing something or someone (an adjective)? This may help you decide whether the word form you need is a noun or an adjective. 3. Adjective/adverb confusion An adjective is a word that qualifies or tells us more about a noun or pronoun. An adverb is a word that qualifies or tells us more about a verb (he studies diligently), or sometimes an adjective (an extremely expensive suit) or another adverb (she walked very slowly). Many adverbs end in 'ly'. Q: Is the word in your writing describing something/someone (an adjective), or is it describing how something or someone is doing something (an adverb)? This may help you decide whether the word form you need is an adjective or an adverb. 4. Confusion with gerund or other noun forms Nouns based on verbs can end in either 'ing' (the gerund) or another ending such as 'tion' or 'ment'. If there is an object in the sentence, the gerund form is usually correct. Q: Is the word in your writing ending in '...ing' acting as a verb or a noun form?

This may help you decide whether the word form you need is a gerund or a type of noun. 5. Confusion with different forms of the same root noun Nouns may have different forms, usually with slightly different meanings, which can be confusing. Q: Is the noun use in your writing correct or not? If you are not sure - perhaps ask a native speaker to see if the word in context is correct. 6. Confusion with the pronoun form A pronoun is an identifying word used instead of a noun. Personal pronouns, in English, are ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he/she/it’, ‘we’, ‘you’ (plural), and ‘they’. Possessive pronouns are ‘my’, ‘you’re, ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘its’, ‘our’, ‘their’. Personal and possessive pronouns are sometimes confused. If a pronoun refers to a noun used previously, singular/plural agreement may be incorrect. Q: Is the pronoun use in your writing correct or not? Is the pronoun possessive or simply identifying? If you are not sure - perhaps ask a native speaker to see if the word in context is correct. 7.

Confusion with adjective form adjectives ending in ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’ can be confusing for students. Some adjectives are actually participles (verb forms with ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ endings). Generally, the ‘-ed’ ending means that the noun so described has a passive role: you are confused by something (the subject matter, the way it is presented, etc.), whereas the 'ing' adjectives generally describe the quality of something. The ‘-ed’ ending modifiers are often accompanied by prepositions and describe the human reaction to something e.g. I was excited by the lecture on human ethics last week.. The ‘-ing’ ending means that the noun described has a more active role. Q: Is the adjective use in your writing correct or not? Ask yourself- what am I trying to describe? Should I be using an 'ed' or 'ing' ending? If you are not sure - perhaps ask a native speaker to see if the word in context is correct. For more help For more help with grammar issues affecting your assignment work, there are many useful resources on the HELPS website , as well as in the UTS Library .

You can also come and talk to the HELPS Advisors who can assist you. Grammar: the syntactic function of -ing forms | Onestopenglish Grammar: the syntactic function of -ing forms By Scott Thornbury Rate An article discussing the syntactic function of -ing forms. I know that verbs ending in -ing can function as verbs or nouns or adjectives in a sentence, but can a verb ending in -ing ever function as an adverb? If so, can you cite some examples? Bob A Hi Bob, The use of –ing forms was touched on in a previous question (see ' –ing forms and post modification ' ), but it’s worth returning to, not least because your question raises interesting issues relating to word class and syntactic function. The notion of word class (also called part of speech) is a convenient one for labelling purposes but tends to buckle under pressure. Traditionally (just to remind you) there are eight word classes (if we ignore exclamations): nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, determiners, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions However, language being what it is, many words elude a neat categorization in these terms. Or they fit into more than one category.

The word round, for example, can be noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition. The -ing form – as you imply – is particularly unclear. The very fact that we now bundle together what used to be called gerunds, and what are still called participles, into one category, called -ing forms, is indicative of this uncertainty. This is well illustrated in Quirk and Greenbaum’s (1973) A University Grammar of English, where they give examples of how the word painting can be placed at any point on a gradient from totally noun-like to totally verb-like. Just a few examples: A painting of Brown’s… The painting of Brown is as skilful as that of Gainsborough…. Brown’s deft painting of his daughter is a delight to watch… I dislike Brown’s painting his daughter. I dislike Brown painting his daughter. I watched Brown painting his daughter… The silently painting man is Brown… He is painting his daughter. Likewise, the difference between participles and adjectives ending in –ing is not always clear cut. A swimming pool is not the same as a swimming dog, but are either of these uses adjectival, in the sense that, say a boring book is?

After all, you can say the book is very boring or that it is more boring than that one. Boring, in these instances, passes all the tests for adjectives. The same doesn’t apply to either example of swimming. Neither the pool nor the dog can be said to be very swimming. So, swimming, as in a swimming dog (i.e. a dog which is swimming) is best thought of as being verbal, i.e. a participle that is pre-modifying the noun. And swimming pool is probably best classified as a compound noun, formed originally by combining two nouns, with the meaning a pool for swimming. As a footnote, the Collins COBUILD Grammar (1990) points out that, while most adjectival uses of –ing forms derive from verbs, there are some –ing words that have no related verb. Instead they are formed from nouns or adjectives, and 'verbalised' through the addition of –ing. Examples: neighbouring, balding, enterprizing, and appetizing. Now, to Bob’s question about adverbs: can a verb ending in –ing ever function as an adverb?

The answer is no (unless notwithstanding is deconstructed into the verb to not withstand!) but –ing forms can function as adverbials. Adverbs and adverbials So, then, what’s the difference between an adverb and an adverbial? This is where we need to distinguish between word classes, on the one hand, and sentence elements, on the other. We’ve already established that there are eight word classes, of which adverbs are just one. Word classes describe grammatical function at the level of individual words. Sentence elements, however, distinguish between the different syntactic functions of different parts of the sentence, as in subject, object, complement, verb, and adverbial. The subject, for example, functions as the agent of the action or state encoded in the verb element of the sentence. And the adverbial typically provides circumstantial information, such as the time, place, or manner, of the situation encoded in the verb. These elements may be realised by individual words, or clumps of words (phrases), or whole clauses. Adverbials can take the form of adverbs, as in She ate heartily. Or of adverb phrases, as in She ate very heartily.

But adverbials can also be realised by other word classes and phrase types. For example: noun phrases (e.g. she ate last night) prepositional phrases (e.g. she ate in her room) finite clauses (e.g. she ate although she wasn't hungry) non-finite clauses (e.g. being a bit peckish, she ate) It is in this last category – non-finite clauses – that we find –ing forms fulfilling an adverbial function. This is often the case with so-called comment clauses, as in Strictly speaking, a dolphin is a mammal. But it is also common with verbs that are 'concerned with beginning, ending, or spending time in a particular way' (Collins COBUILD Grammar Patterns: 1. Verbs, 1996), such as start off, end up, (e.g. I started off doing languages; They’d prefer to die fighting…). And also (although, oddly, the aforementioned reference book doesn’t mention these) after many verbs of movement (such as they came running… I went skiing) and verbs of states, as in the Stevie Smith poem: Nobody heard him, the dead man.

But still he lay moaning... I’ve often toyed with the notion that the so-called present or past continuous is simply another form of this pattern, i.e. state verb + -ing adverbial. What, after all, is the semantic difference between he lay moaning, he sat moaning, he stood moaning etc. and he was moaning? (The rest of the Stevie Smith poem, by the way, provides other good examples of –ing forms, including those in its well-known refrain, and title: Not waving but drowning.) So, the answer to Bob’s question, is no… but, yes. (And why is it that neither coursebooks nor pedagogical grammars really deal with this stuff?) Rate this resource (5 average user rating) 1 star out of 5 2 stars out of 5 3 stars out of 5 4 stars out of 5 5 stars out of 5 You must be signed in to rate. Share Anne | Mon, 7 Mar 2011 8:03 pm interesting! But where are the participle clause student exercises on One stop? Verbals Verbals 1.

Gerunds A verbal is a word formed from a verb but functioning as a different part of speech. A gerund is a verbal ending in -ing that functions as a noun. Like an ordinary single-word noun, a gerund may be used as a In the example below, the gerund phrase renames the subject, this. NOTE: Do not confuse gerunds with verbs (predicates) in the progressive tense. GERUND PREDICATE VERB Even though is cooking and was scratching end in -ing, they are not gerunds because they are used as predicate verbs, not as nouns. 2. Participles A verbal is a word formed from a verb but functioning as a different part of speech. A participle is a verbal that functions as an adjective. Two kinds of participles: A. Present participles, always ending in -ing, are created from the form of a verb used with the verb to be ( am, is, are, was, were, been) as an auxiliary verb (progressive tense). Removing the auxiliary verb and using the -ing form of the main verb as an adjective produces a present participle. B.

Past participles , usually ending in -ed or -en, are created from the form of a verb used with the verb to be as an auxiliary verb (passive voice). Removing the auxiliary verb and using the -en form of the main verb as an adjective produces a past participle. Past participles may also be part of a participial phrase. Participles and participial phrases should be placed near the nouns they modify. They may either precede or follow a noun. B. Adverbial infinitives Just like a single-word adverb, an infinitive used as an adverb always describes a verb. An adverbial infinitive usually occurs at the beginning or at the end of a sentence and does not need to be near the verb it describes. EXAMPLE: Adverbial infinitive at sentence beginning EXAMPLE: Adverbial infinitive at sentence end HINT: You can always identify an adverbial infinitive by inserting the test words in order in front of infinitive. If the words in order make sense, the infinitive is adverbial. PUNCTUATION NOTE: 1. Use a comma after the adverbial infinitive when it starts a sentence. 2.

Do not separate the adverbial infinitive from the rest of the sentence if the infinitive ends the sentence.

Question: What word refers to a verb form which functions as a noun, ending in –ing?
Answer: GERUND