"Thanks for having us."

[Catherine C.]

Hi all...first post here...I have been tutoring private ESL lessons for 8 years and last week one of my students asked me a question that has me stumped. I imagine the answer is right in from of my nose but it escapes me.
She wanted to know why her chldren's friends would always say "Thanks for having us" when they were ready to leave, after visiting. She thought it should be "Thanks for had us" which, of course, I know is not correct. However when I got to analyzing the parts of speech in this sentence in order to give her an explanation tomorrow I started to realize that I didn't know them!

(1)Thanks for having us.

(2)Thanks for coming.

In the above sentences:what parts of speech are "having" and "coming"?? After much though I'm beginning to think they must be gerunds but if they are, how do I explain this to her?

Thanks in advance...

Catherine

[Mister Micawber]

Gerunds indeed-- noun objects of the preposition 'for', which form prepositional phrases functioning as adverbial modifiers of the verb 'thank' (I am presuming here that 'thanks' is a shortening of 'thank you', which is a shortening of 'I thank you').

I thank you for the hospitality.
I thank you for having me as a guest.

[Catherine C.]

Thank you so very much Mister Micawber for such a clear and prompt reply! I have just found this forum and am most impressed! Indeed "thanks" is a shortening of "I thank you."

Catherine