January 28, 2004

Another Grammar Question

I'm substitute teaching today, and I am grading diagrams.

The sentence is "The crying kitten wanted some warm and nourishing milk."

Subject: kitten (modified by the and crying, which is a gerund)
Verb: wanted
Direct Object: milk (modified by some, warm, nourishing; and joins warm and nourishing.)

Here's my question: Is nourishing a gerund or an adjective? The answer key says it is a noun, but it looks gerundy to me.

Posted by at January 28, 2004 03:32 PM | TrackBack
Comments

there are three basic verbals: gerunds, participles, infinitives.

gerund: running is fun

participle: the running man is a bad movie
or he is running

infinitive: he likes to run


participles end in either ing, ed, or t

Posted by: jeremy at February 7, 2004 12:22 AM

Yes, but participles are verbals that do not end in -ing. Gerunds are verbals that end in -ing and infinitives are verbals that begin with the word "to," and participles are all the other verbals. Aren't they?

Posted by: Grammar Queen at February 5, 2004 02:00 PM

crying and nourishing are both participles, i believe, since gerunds are noun-functioning verbals and participles function adjectivally

Posted by: jeremy at February 3, 2004 02:12 PM
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