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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Participle and adjective

Hello,
I'm Lithuanian and I have two questions. First one is about adjectives and participles. I had a task to do for my English, which required making adjectives out of verbs. When we were checking how we have done that, I'got into the dispute with my lecturer, whether a participle suits for this task. Well in Lithuanian, participles are also used as an adjectives, because they describe something, but it actually isn't an adjective and, for instance, if I marked in my state exam that "accumulated" is an adjective (Lithuanian word, of course), I would have definitely made a mistake. So IS participle an adjective, or does it just has the same function as an adjective.
My second question: if I make a noun out of a verb adding -ing, would that be correct. My lecturer kept saying that it isn't a noun, but I claimed otherwise. Which one of us was right this time?
Sorry if my English wasn't the best and thank you in advance.
  

Top answer

I would have to see the specific sentences under discussion, but -ing verb form can be used as both adjectives and nouns: The dancing bear is funny. Dancing is a good form of exercise.

  • I would have to see the specific sentences under discussion, but -ing verb form can be used as both adjectives and nouns: The dancing bear is funny.
  • Dancing is a good form of exercise.
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7 Answers
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I would have to see the specific sentences under discussion, but -ing verb form can be used as both adjectives and nouns:

The dancing bear is funny.
Dancing is a good form of exercise.

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There was no sentence, I just had to make an adjective and a noun out of the bare infinitive, so I can think of any meaning I like.
But understand me correctly - I want to know whether a participle LEGALLY can be an adjective. I know that it's used as an adjective, but can I say it actually IS an adjective. The same with "refurbishing" being a noun. Is it legally a noun?
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'Legally' has no meaning here. Grammarians may use whatever terms they wish... but they had better use terms that are acceptable to other grammarians. You cannot go to jail for calling an -ing verb form a gerund when it is used as a noun, but the term 'gerund' is disappearing nevertheless.

Modern grammarians are avoiding any name whatsoever except '-ing verb form', which then can
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How can I put it then?.. Well, would that be a mistake in a state exam if I said that "refurbishing" from your second sentence is a noun?
If I said in the same exam that "ecouraged" in "we are even more encouraged now" is a past participle, but not a noun, would that be a mistake?
I don't like the idea, that there are now certain rules. Do you really can call a word whatever you like in wh
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How can I put it then?.. Well, would that be a mistake in a state exam if I said that "refurbishing" from your second sentence is a noun?-- 'Refurbishing' is a noun in that sentence.

If I said in the same exam that "ecouraged" in "we are even more encouraged now" is a past participle, but not a noun, would that be a mistake?-- 'Encouraged' could be considered either an ad
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Most definitely it can - especially past participles! Few examples are of past participles as adjectives are:

A tired group.('tired' qualifies the noun group)

A hidden treasure was found by Aron.('hidden' qualifies the noun treasure)

The torn clothes were thrown away. ('torn' qualifies the noun clothes)

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