Dear Mikenewyork, I'm still confused.

Originally Posted by I

1 Michael and David disagree about Michael puttting up his posters

2 David hitting mary is the worst scene of the show.

1.So we can change "put up" to "putting up" "hit" to "hitting"
to make the sentences "Michael put up his posters" "David hit mary" to be noun?

Originally Posted by Mikenewyork

No, we can't. In both of these cases, the -ing verbh form is a verbal. A verbal is a verb form used not as a verb, but as another part of speech. In both of yoyur examples, the -ing verbal is a present participle, used as an adjective. Because it retains verb-like qualities, the participle can take verb modifiers and a direct object. In the first, "putting up his posters" is a participial phrase describing an action of Michael; in the second, "hitting Mary" is a participial phrase describing an action of David.
Another -ing verbal is called a gerund. A gerund is a verbal used as a noun. We'll get to that later.

I'm so confused. You mean "putting up" and "hitting" in the sentences above is participle? why? They disagree about the putting up of posters by micheal. It seems "putting up" used as noun. Isn't it be gerund???

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by wendy

I'm so confused. You mean "putting up" and "hitting" in the sentences above is participle? why? They disagree about the putting up of posters by micheal. It seems "putting up" used as noun. Isn't it be gerund???

Yes, they are participles simply because there is no place for another noun.

Let's parse the first sentence:

Michael and David disagree about Michael puttting up his posters.

Michael -- noun, part of a compound subject
and -- conjunction linking two parts of a compound subject
David -- noun, part of a compoubnd subject
disagree -- verb, plural, because of a compound subject
about -- preposition introducing a prepositional phrase
Michael -- noun, object of preposition
putting up his posters -- participial phrase, acting as an adjective modifying "Michael".

partcipial phrase:

putting -- participial adjective, modifying Michael
up -- adverb modifying the participle "putting"
the -- definite article modifying "posters"
posters -- plural noun, direct object of the participle "putting"

If we called "putting" a noun-gerund here, it wouldn't fit. "About can't have two objects.

Now let's change the sentence slightly:

Michael and David disagree about Michael's puttting up his posters.

Michael -- noun, part of a compound subject
and -- conjunction linking two parts of a compound subject
David -- noun, part of a compoubnd subject
disagree -- verb, plural, because of a compound subject
about -- preposition introducing a prepositional phrase
Michael's -- possessive adjective, modifying "putting"
putting up his posters -- gerund phrase, acting as a noun and serving as the object of the preposition "about".

gerund phrase:

putting -- gerund, noun, object of the preposition "about"
up -- adverb modifying the gerund "putting"
the -- definite article modifying "posters"
posters -- plural noun, direct object of the gerund "putting"

In this case, "putting" becomes a noun, because "Michael's" can't serve as the object of a preposition and because "Michael's" needs a noun to modify.

The sense of the two sentences are the same and "putting" is the same word. The grammatic analysis must change, however.

They disagree about the putting up of posters by micheal. It seems "putting up" used as noun. Isn't it be gerund???

When you state it that way, "putting" is a gerund noun. There, "Michael" has moved to the end of the sentence and "putting" is the object of the preposition "about". Notice also that you have inserted the definite article "the" before "putting". That is another indication that "putting" is being used as a noun.

I know this is confusing, but I hope this helps.

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by wendy

I'm so confused. You mean "putting up" and "hitting" in the sentences above is participle?

The words putting and hitting are participles.

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