[Grammar] My dog's most annoying habit is hogging the middle of the bed.

[danghuynh88]

Hi teachers !!!

I am a bit confused here. This sentence has a gerund phrase is "hogging the middle of the bed". I can understand that we use gerund here because, the subject complement of the linking verb is.

If so does it make the meaning of this sentence any different as I also understand this sentence's tense is present continuous S + to be + Verb - ing.

What is the connection between this gerund phrase and verb tense.

"My dog's most annoying habit is hogging the middle of the bed"
Source: chompchomp

Sorry for starting many topic here but sometimes it's hard to understand even if I read many reference from the internet especially when I am not a native speaker

Thanks

 

[GoesStation]

If I understand your question, you're wondering whether is hogging could be a present continuous verb in a similar sentence. The answer is yes, it could. We know that hogging is a gerund in the sample sentence because a habit can't hog the middle of a bed. Consider this sentence though:

My dog's most annoying brother is hogging the middle of the bed. By changing one word, I've changed hogging from a gerund into a present participle. (The sentence means that my dog has more than one brother, and the most annoying one is taking up too much space.)

If I understand the grammar correctly, hogging the middle of the bed is an adjective phrase in the first sentence while the middle of the bed is the direct object of the second.

 

[danghuynh88]

Hey GoesStation

Yes that's pretty much answer my question especially when you pointed out habit cannot hog the middle of a bed. Thanks a lot