Is this Participle?

Question

Can you please confirm that this is a participle and not a gerund:

Government's efforts are aimed at decreasing the fiscal deficit.

Also, can you please let me know an easy way to differentiate Participles and Gerunds. I am often not able to distinguish.

Thanks,
Bharosey.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

rambharoseyGovernment's efforts are aimed at decreasing the fiscal deficit.

The key is the function. In this case it functions as object of the preposition. That's a noun function.
The gun was aimed at John. So it's a gerund.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

rambharoseyCan you please confirm that this is a participle and not a gerund:

Government's efforts are aimed at decreasing the fiscal deficit.

It's a gerund. I don't know if it is considered a good rule of thumb, but "ing" form of a verb preceded by a preposition is usually a gerund. i.e.
I've planned on leaving early to the airport to avoid the rush hour traffic.
She is very excited about going to Europe.

I am tired of your lying to me.

BillJ · Answer

rambharoseyCan you please confirm that this is a participle and not a gerund:

Government's efforts are aimed at decreasing the fiscal deficit.

Also, can you please let me know an easy way to differentiate Participles and Gerunds. I am often not able to distinguish

It's a gerund. A gerund is a verb-form that is functionally similar to a noun, whereas a participle is one that is functionally similar to an adjective. The problem with distinguishing the two is that they both use the -ing form of the verb, so you need to look at their different functions in order to differentiate them:

(i) The Government's efforts are aimed at [decreasing the fiscal deficit]. (gerund)

(ii) The Government's efforts are aimed at [all the people] (noun)

In both those examples the bracketed parts function as complement to the preposition "at". In (i) the bracketed part is a clause, with the verb "decreasing" as its head; in (ii) the bracketed part is a noun phrase with the noun "people" as its head. The similarity between the verb-form "decreasing" and the noun "people" is simply this: they both head expressions with the same function.

(iii) People [earning $50,000 a year] don't qualify for the rebate. (participle)

(iv) [Moderately affluent] people don't qualify for the rebate. (adjective)

In (iii) and (iv) the bracketed parts are alike in that they both modify the head noun "people". In (iii) the brackets surround a clause with the verb "earning" as its head, whereas in (iv) we have an adjective phrase with the adjective "affluent" as head. Again, "earning" and "affluent" are functionally similar in that each heads an expression modifying a noun.

Does that help?

BillJ

Rambharosey · Answer

Thanks Avangi, dimsumexpress and BillJ for the elaborate responses. Clear now.

Is this Participle?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions