gerund

hello this is the first time of me..I had a problemabout gerund..Could you pls help me?This is my question:can we use gerund after gerund ?like learning swiming or jumping going....thank you...

acakmak26 said:

hello this is the first time of me..I had a problemabout gerund..Could you pls help me?This is my question:can we use gerund after gerund ?like learning swiming or jumping going....thank you...

Click to expand...

***NOT A TEACHER***acakmak26: Not all -ing words are called "gerunds." Some are called "participles." (1) You wrote, "I am learning swimming." The first -ing is a participle. It is part of "am learning." It is the present continuous that you are studying in school. The "swimming" is a noun (a something). So people call it a "gerund." I think most native speakers would prefer to say, "I am learning TO SWIM." ("To swim" is called an "infinitive.") If you have more questions, just post them here. Many people will be happy to answer you.

In 'I am going swimming,' what is 'swimming'? ;-) Gerund? Or a participle? What is the function of 'swimming'?

Kondorosi said:

In 'I am going swimming,' what is 'swimming'? ;-) Gerund? Or a participle? What is the function of 'swimming'?

Click to expand...

I'd call it a gerund. It's a noun.
A: I'm going swimming.
B: Why.
A: Because swimming is fun.

In the third sentence, 'swimming' is the obvious noun subject of the clause; and my opinion is that the two 'swimmings' perform the same function.

Kondorosi said:

In 'I am going swimming,' what is 'swimming'? ;-) Gerund? Or a participle? What is the function of 'swimming'?

Click to expand...

***NOT A TEACHER***My books tell me that "come" and "go" may be considered linking verbs in sentences such as "He went fishing." Thus the -ing word can be called a "participle." Or: the -ing word may be considered a gerund modifying verb. That is, "He went fishing" was originally "He went a-fishing" which was originally "He went ON fishing."

Thanks Ray and Parser. :up:

This is what I think:

A: Where are you going?
B: I am going fishing.

participle
----------
What are you going?
I am going fishing.

I can't be at one with the gerund interpretation. However,

Swimming is fun. :tick:
What is fun? :tick:

Let's be honest guys, in many cases, nobody knows what constitutes a gerund and what should be properly called a present participle.;-)

I always try to see if I can replace the word with another noun.
I am going fishing.
I am going home.

Running everyday keeps me fit.
Regular exercise everyday keeps me fit.

As these words can be easily replaced by a noun, I think that makes them a gerund.

indonesia said:

I always try to see if I can replace the word with another noun.
I am going fishing.
I am going home.

Running everyday keeps me fit.
Regular exercise everyday keeps me fit.

As these words can be easily replaced by a noun, I think that makes them a gerund.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure.
I am running.
I am president.
But 'running' isn't a gerund here.
I am crazy. Maybe it's an adjective!

bhaisahab said:

Let's be honest guys, in many cases, nobody knows what constitutes a gerund and what should be properly called a present participle.;-)

Click to expand...

Hello Bhai,

The way I see it, present participle is related to verb form. End of story. Gerund, participle and infinitive are verbals with distinct (forms and) functions.

the dancing queen
dancing = an adjective in present participle form --> It is a participle.

the broken vase
broken = an adjective in past participle form --> It is a participle.

Form and function: it is important to note the difference between the two concepts.

indonesia said:

I always try to see if I can replace the word with another noun.
I am going fishing.
I am going home.

I think that makes them a gerund.

Click to expand...

A tiny little error slipped in the machinery. 'home' is a noun in form, that is true. However, it functions as an adverb, as an optional predicate adjunct. In fact, regarding the form, 'home' is a truncated prep. phrase (to home = nach Hause).
'home' is an adverb and so is 'swimming', which makes the latter a participle. :up:

Raymott said:

I'm not sure.
I am running.
I am president.
But 'running' isn't a gerund here.
I am crazy. Maybe it's an adjective!

Click to expand...

"I am running" is a complete sentence comprising the two core elements that are present (overtly or not) in each grammatical sentence:

I = S(ubject)
am running = V(erb); Running is the present participle form of the main verb in the verb phrase.
-----------
I am president

I = S
am = CopV (Cop = copulative = linking)
president = nominal subject complement (C)

You can' compare the two sentences to infer function becaue the grammatical structures in the two sentences differ.

-------------------------

Running everyday keeps me fit.
Regular exercise everyday keeps me fit.

gerund

'home' is an adverb and so is 'swimming', which makes the latter a participle. :up:


Is swimming an adverb or an adjective?

indonesia said:

'home' is an adverb and so is 'swimming', which makes the latter a participle. :up:


Is swimming an adverb or an adjective?

Click to expand...

What is your educated guess? ;-)

More like an uneducated guess

I would say that it is possibly an adjective.

My reasoning is this, a +ing participle acting as an adjective is the activity named by the participle that was performed by the noun/pronoun.

I am going swimming.

I = pronoun

and the activity that I performed was swimming. So this leads me to say it's an adjective (participle).

indonesia said:

and the activity that I performed was swimming

Click to expand...

Would it not mean that 'swimming' is a noun (gerund)?

What questions can you use to elicit the sentence?

A: Where are you going?
B: I am going swimming.

Are you still sticking to your argument? ;-)

acakmak26 said:

hello this is the first time of me..I had a problemabout gerund..Could you pls help me?This is my question:can we use gerund after gerund ?like learning swiming or jumping going....thank you...

Click to expand...

1. Yes, but only rarely. In fact an '-ing -ing' combination is generally considered unacceptable whatever the grammatical status of the words in question.

We do not say e.g. *during walking (preposition + gerund), despite the fact that a gerund normally shares privilege of occurrence with nouns, or

*I was beginning getting tired.

(participle + gerund), despite the fact that

I began getting tired.

is perfectly well-formed.

Interestingly, however, where no alternative to a gerund object exists, it tends to be allowed. Thus, unlike 'begin', which can take a dependent infinitive,

I was beginning to get tired.

, the verb 'enjoy', for instance, cannot, so that

I was enjoying talking to him.

is accepted.

2. Regarding the status of the -ing form in 'go swimming', etc., it is generally reckoned an adverbial objective, i.e. a noun phrase serving adverbially whose putative preposition is, either optionally or (as in this case) obligatorily, ellipted.

Other examples are phrases such as 'next Tuesday', as in

I'll see you next Tuesday.

, which would in days of yore have been 'on next Tuesday', the preposition having however fallen into disuse to the point where it would now be considered actively incorrect to reinsert it.

Thus, 'swimming' here qualifies - if only barely! - as a gerund.

Kondorosi said:

A tiny little error slipped in the machinery. 'home' is a noun in form, that is true. However, it functions as an adverb, as an optional predicate adjunct. In fact, regarding the form, 'home' is a truncated prep. phrase (to home = nach Hause).
'home' is an adverb and so is 'swimming', which makes the latter a participle. :up:

Click to expand...

philo2009 said:

2. Regarding the status of the -ing form in 'go swimming', etc., it is generally reckoned an adverbial objective, i.e. a noun phrase serving adverbially whose putative preposition is, either optionally or (as in this case) obligatorily, ellipted.

Thus, 'swimming' here qualifies - if only barely! - as a gerund.

Click to expand...

I have no idea why I said 'home' is a noun and in the same breath 'swimming' is an adverbial. I kicked the ball over the crossbar from the goal line (soccer). Damn I am good. :up::lol:

Are we saying that it could be a gerund or an adjective:?:

indonesia said:

Are we saying that it could be a gerund or an adjective:?:

Click to expand...

Compare these:

I am going home.
I am going swimming.

You can draw a parallel between the syntactic stati of 'home' and 'swimming' in the first and second sentence, respectively:

• They are prepositional complements in their respective sentences. Consequently, they are nouns. Its noun class classifies 'swimming' as a gerund.
• They function adverbially answering the question 'Where?'.
• Their putative prepositions (to) are obligatorily ellipted.

Indonesia, these are all written down in previous posts. Do you read the comments? ;-)

:shock: I do read all the posts, but some (if not most) of the information goes straight over the top of my head. In my defense, as I was educated in a less than average English school we never studied grammar. Thanks to good people such as yourself (Kondorosi), I'm now learning a little more each day.
Saying that, I was correct in my original post in this thread, that swimming is a noun (gerund). :-D

Kondorosi said:

In fact, regarding the form, 'home' is a truncated prep. phrase (to home = nach Hause).
'home' is an adverb and so is 'swimming', which makes the latter a participle.

Click to expand...

I am going (to go) home

is more like it.