Verbs-how they are explained

Question

I am curious, now verbs tell us what a person is doing or the 'happening' in a sentence. For the most part if I were to read "Jon is running," Jon is a noun, and running is the verb explaining the 'doing'. Verbs are their own part of speech, they do not name things.

But then why is it we explain them as things? I mean, why do we say "Running is walking fast.", as if now it is something? I guess I am confused on how it can be both at times. Is this just how we explain it, but don't literally mean running is a thing?

Thanks for the help

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

When you make "a noun that represents the action of a verb", it is called a gerund.

eg Jon runs/ran/is running. These are verb forms.

eg Jon likes running. Running is good exercise. Running is walking fast. 'Running' in these examples is a gerund. So is 'walking'.

Any good grammar book will deal with the topic of gerunds.

Best wishes, Clive

Anonymous · Answer

So, what you are saying is that run, running, ran are all verb types expressing the action. They are the more typical forms of the verb telling us 'the what is going on'

But we can use a verb like running, and it can function as a noun to talk about it. Running is still taking about the action as in ran, run and running, it just now is functining like a thing and that type of word is called a gerund. Right?

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousBut then why is it we explain them as things? I mean, why do we say "Running is walking fast.", as if now it is something?

Maybe you are thinking that "running" is a noun, and that nouns "name things". When we say that a noun names a thing, we don't mean that it names, necessarily, a physical object. By "thing" we mean any entity, even very abstract entities such as properties, attitudes, behaviors, activities, periods of time, events, personality traits, and on and on. "running" names an activity, so in the expanded meaningof "thing", "running" really is a "thing" -- even though it is not a physial object like a carrot, a lake, or a truck!

As mentioned previously in the thread, the -ing form of a verb is called a gerund when it is used as a noun, and then it is usually the name of an activity. And remember -- an activity is considered a "thing" even though it is an abstract entity.

CJ

Clive · Answer

Hi,

So, what you are saying is that run, running <<< when used in verb tenses like 'He was running', 'she is running', ran are all verb types expressing the action. They are the more typical forms of the verb telling us 'the what is going on' Yes.

But we can use a verb like running, and it can function as a noun to talk about it. Running is still taking about the action as in ran, run and running, it just now is functining like a thing and that type of word is called a gerund. Right? Right.

Would you like to write and post here a few sentences that use gerunds, so that we can check them for you?

Best wishes, Clive

Verbs-how they are explained

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