The duckling surprises everyone by growing into a beautiful swan.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Katherine99

Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2012
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Spanish
Home Country
Mexico
Current Location
United States
I know that “by growing into a beautiful swan” is a prepositional phrase modifying “surprises”. At first I thought that “growing into a beautiful swan” was a gerund, but an English teacher from another site said that “growing” was a verb because you couldn’t substitute another noun in its place and because the duckling had to surprise everyone by DOING something. Is she correct? I thought that a verb ending in –ing always had to be combined with the “to be” verb in order to function as a verb.
 

Frank Antonson1

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
She was wrong.

You could substitute "its development into".

You are correct. "Growing into" is a gerund acting as the object of the preposition "by". Substitute "becoming" and it might seem simpler. "Swan" is the predicate nominative within that gerund phrase.

Now, that's Reed-Kellogg.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top