Is it gerund or present participle?

Question

Hillman realized that arches were the ideal shape for resisting compression. Is the underlined word on the sentence above gerund or  present participle?

GPY · Accepted Answer

<p>Gerund.</p>

Cherry Pochi · Answer

I have been wondering whether it is a gerund or a present participle. Thank you!

BillJ · Answer

Hillman realized that arches were the ideal shape for resisting compression.

In traditional grammar, resisting is said to be gerund because it heads an expression that is complement of the preposition for, and prepositions typically have nouns as complement, e.g. the ideal shape for maximum strength. The similarity is that the verb-form resisting and the noun strength both head expressions with the same function, i.e. Complement of the preposition for.

But the most important thing to understand is that resisting is a verb here, not a noun. Together with its object compression it forms the non-finite clause resisting compression which as I said is Complement of for.

Is it gerund or present participle?

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