Type of usage verb/noun & en dash

Question

Website example of a phrasePhrases can be very short – or quite long. An examples of a phrase is“Waiting for the rain to stop”.So 'waiting' is a noun but can you not say:He was left waiting for a bus.   (complete sentence).Can't you just stick 'He was infront of it...  Is the noun 'waiting' not acting as the verb in the sentence?The definition of a phrase says no verb...but it's still an occurence 'waiting'. What's the difference between these types of nouns that signal occurences and the verbs that signal occurences in terms of one forming part of a phrase and other not.Also,He was looking ill- much to the shock of fans.       (What's the difference in this newspaper line with an en-dash and the example I've used above with the  en dash compared to the em dash).  I can't find any resource that say's the en-dash should be used this way.Instead it is used for gaps in page numbers or dates, with the em dash commonly used for breaking up parts of a sentence in this way.

Englishmaven · Accepted Answer

Wow! Where to start? "Waiting" is not a verb in your example. It is a present participle and heads a participial phrase.

There are many kinds of phrases:

Verb phrase = has been running, is canceled, could run

Noun phrase = a big red dog

Prepositional phrase = in the morning, on the table, from my brother

Adverb phrase = very slowly

A clause is a group of words consisting of a subject and verb that comprise a subject-verb relationship.

"Waiting for the rain to stop" is a phrase even if it occurs in your sentence.

He was left waiting for the rain to stop. It's still a phrase. You can convert it to a clause: He was waiting for the rain to stop. That changes the grammatical structure entirely. "Was waiting" is the verb phrase that works with the subject "he."

BillJ · Answer

panda blue 483“Waiting for the rain to stop”. So waiting is a noun ...

The salient interpretation is that of verb functioning as head of the verb phrase "waiting for the rain to stop", which would typically be part of the predicate in, for example, I am waiting for the rain to stop. That it's a verb is evident from the fact that it can be modified by an adverb, as in "patiently waiting for the rain to stop" (adverbs can't modify nouns).

panda blue 483So 'waiting' is a noun but can you not say: He was left waiting for a bus. (complete sentence).

Of course you can.

Again, "waiting" is a verb. This time it is head of the non-finite clause "waiting for a bus" which functions as complement of "left". I'd analyse this as a bare passive clause with "was" as the main verb and "left" the past participle (of "leave"). That it's passive is evident from the admissibility of a by phrase: He was left waiting for the bus by his friends.

panda blue 483Is the noun 'waiting' not acting as the verb in the sentence?

Yes, it is the verb in the sentence. But it's a 'real' verb, not a noun acting as a verb.

Type of usage verb/noun & en dash

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions