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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

The speech part of "increasing"

1) The class is boring. (Adjective)

2) He is running. (Continuous verb)

3) The gap is increasing. (Continuous verb? or adjective?)

I know that the speech part of boring and running in each sentence but I am not sure what the speech part of increasing is in the sentence. Could you help me out and explain the reason, if you do not mind? Thank you so much as usual.
  

Top answer

Anonymous 1) The class is boring. (Adjective) Yes. Anonymous 2) He is running.

  • Anonymous 1) The class is boring.
  • (Adjective) Yes.
  • Anonymous 2) He is running.
  • (Continuous verb) Yes.
  • Anonymous 3) The gap is increasing.
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3 Answers
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Anonymous1) The class is boring. (Adjective)
Yes.
Anonymous2) He is running. (Continuous verb)
Yes.
Anonymous3) The gap is increasing. (Continuous verb? or adjective?)
The former.
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1) The class is extremely/very boring. (Adjective) One of the tests for an adjective is that it is gradable.
2) He is extremely running. (Continuous verb) A continuous verb fails the "gradable" test.

3) The gap is increasing. (Continuous verb? or adjective?)
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Thank you so increasing there is a continuous verb but we also can use it as an adjective here in a increasing gap, an increasing number, etc and we can make it as an adverb, adding -ly. So I thought of it as an adjective as well, but it fails the gradable test in #3, right? That is a so interesting and great way. Thank you.

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