Stopping doing something

[bigjohnox]

Morning all,
Yesterday I said something like 'it must be raining, the boys are stopping playing basketball', and I wondered what tense that was. Double present continuous? No such thing....and I couldn't find it online.
Thanks
bigjohnox

[2006]

Morning all, Welcome!
Yesterday I said something like 'it must be raining, the boys are stopping playing basketball', and I wondered what tense that was. Double present continuous? No such thing....and I couldn't find it online.
Thanks
bigjohnox

Only "(are) stopping" fucntions as a continuous tense verb. "playing (basketball" is the object of the verb "stopping".

I am stopping (the car)(my diet)(John)(playing basketball). In this 'sentence', all the underlined words are nouns.

Nouns can be subjects or objects. 'Playing (basketball) is fun.'

An -ing verb that functions as a noun is a gerund. "playing" in your sentence is a gerund.