Gerund or no gerund after verbs of perception

[philo2009]

OMG! Did I perpetrate that solecism? Of course it's a participle rather than a gerund. When I insist on distinguishing between them I'm regarded as a stuffy Classicist (because of -ans/-andum etc), and I'm afraid I occasionally succumb to the pressure of students who have been brought up with the one-size-fits-all term '-ing form'. Many apologies!

b

Just to be crystal clear about this...
Apologies for confusing participles and gerunds gladly accepted, but none needed for the term -ing form, which is not demonstrably incorrect (after all, it is a form and it manifestly does end in -ing), and while there is no more excuse for referring to a 'gerund-participle' than to an 'adverbjetive' or 'prepojunction', the term "-ing form", while clearly too simplistic for more advanced students, does, I feel, have a place for purposes of introductory English-teaching, where simply establishing the construction in terms of the correct sequence of words is the primary goal and the exploration of finer syntactic subtleties can perhaps wait!

[BobK]

... the term "-ing form", while clearly too simplistic for more advanced students, does, I feel, have a place for purposes of introductory English-teaching, where simply establishing the construction in terms of the correct sequence of words is the primary goal and the exploration of finer syntactic subtleties can perhaps wait!

I guess you're right. I'm getting there, but the phrase still rather sticks in my craw.

b

[philo2009]