martes, 29 de septiembre de 2020

What is the Difference Between a Gerund and a Present Participle

What is the difference between a gerund and a present participle?

Both a gerund and a present participle come from a verb, and both end in –ing. However, each has a different function. A gerund acts like a noun while a present participle acts like a verb or adjective.

Example: snowboarding

Snowboarding can be a gerund or a present participle.

When snowboarding is a gerund, it acts like a noun. It can be a subject, an object, the object of a preposition, or a subject complement.

Snowboarding is a winter sport. [snowboarding = subject]
I love snowboarding. [snowboarding = object ]
I am excited by snowboarding. [snowboarding = object of a preposition]
One popular sport is snowboarding. [snowboarding = subject complement]

When snowboarding is a present participle, it is part of a continuous verb tense.

Right now, the athlete is snowboarding. [is snowboarding = present continuous]
He was snowboarding yesterday afternoon. [was snowboarding = past continuous]
Tomorrow, my friends and I are going to be snowboarding. [are going to be snowboarding = future continuous]

Unlike a gerund, a present participle can act like an adjective that modifies a noun or follows the be verb.

Example: exciting

An exciting time was had by all.

The word exciting is a present participle used as an adjective to modify a noun or to follow the verb to be.

The exciting ride made the people scream. [adjective + noun]
People enjoyed the exciting roller coaster. [adjective + noun]
The roller coaster is exciting. [be verb + adjective]

Now YOU try: Look at the sentences below. Decide whether the underlined –ing word is acting like a noun, part of a verb, or an adjective. (Answers below)

What an amazing movie! I want to watch it again!

Speaking English well takes a long time.

He cares about getting a good job.

Shh! I am trying to sleep.

My friends and I were sitting in a café and talking.

The directions were very confusing.

They have been studying for a long time and want to take a break.

She loves traveling.

Answers: 1) adjective, 2) gerund, 3) gerund, 4) verb, 5) verb & verb, 6) adjective, 7) verb, 8) gerund

Premodifiers and Postmodifiers

Pre-modifiers:

Pre-modifiers are the modifiers which modify the words that follow them in the sentence. Conventionally the adjectives are usually placed before the nouns. So, most of the adjectives are pre-modifiers. Adverbs are often placed before the words they modify.

Articles, determiners, demonstratives, proper adjectives, descriptive adjectives, compound adjectives, participles, etc. are the adjectives which come before the nouns and modify them.

Conjunctive adverbs, sentence adverbs, and some other adverbs can work being placed before the verbs/adjectives/other adverbs.

Post-modifiers

Post-modifiers are the modifiers which come after the words they modify. Customarily, the adverbs come after the verbs and modify them. However, some adjectives also come after the nouns and modify them.

Most of the adverbs of time, adverbs of manner, adverbs of place/direction usually come after the verbs they modify.

Appositives, prepositional phrases (adjectives/adverbs), infinitives (adverbs/adjectives), dependent clause, etc. usually come after the nouns they modify.

lunes, 21 de septiembre de 2020

Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases modify nouns and verbs while indicating various relationships between subjects and verbs. They are used to color and inform sentences in powerful ways.

A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and can act as a noun, an adjective or an adverb.

Examples are:

The book was on the table.
We camped by the brook.
He knew it was over the rainbow.
She was lost in the dark of night.
He was between a rock and a hard place.
I waited for a while.
She smelled of strawberries and cream.
He won the challenge against all odds

Parts of a Prepositional Phrase

In simplest terms, prepositional phrases consist of a preposition and an object of a preposition. Prepositions are indeclinable words that introduce the object of a prepositional phrase. Indeclinable words are words that have only one possible form. For example, below is a preposition, but belows or belowing are not possible forms of below.

The noun phrase or pronoun that follows the preposition is called the object to the preposition. For example, behind the couch is a prepositional phrase where behind is the preposition and the noun phrase the couch acts as the object to the preposition. Sometimes adjectives are used to further modify the object to the preposition, as in behind the big old smelly green couch.

Formal Functions of Prepositions

Prepositions perform three formal functions in sentences. They can act as an adjective modifying a noun, as an adverb modifying a verb, or as a nominal when used in conjunction with the verb form to be.

Prepositions Functioning as Adjectives

In the following sentences, prepositional phrases perform the function of modifying the nouns boat, pen, and truck:

Look at the boat with the blue sail. Please hand me the pen next to the telephone. Have him move the truck with the trailer.

Prepositions Functioning as Adverbs

In these examples, notice how the prepositional phrases perform adverbial functions by modifying the verbs after, stalled, and won:

The coyote runs after the rabbit. The car stalled despite the tune-up. The team won without the starting quarterback.

Prepositions Functioning as Nominals

In English, sometimes words function as nouns but aren't themselves nouns. These words are called nominals. Prepositions sometimes perform this important function in sentences when they are used in conjunction with the verb to be. For example:

The park is next to the hospital. The student is between an A and a B. The fight scene is before the second act.

Semantic Properties of Prepositions

In semantic terms, the preposition functions to illustrate a logical, temporal, or spatial relationship between the object of the prepositional phrase and the other components of the sentence. Consider the following examples:

The dog is asleep on his bed.

In this example, the prepositional phrase on his bed indicates a spatial relationship between the subject dog and the object bed. If the preposition on was replaced with under or beneath the spatial relationship would be altered.

The town hasn't been the same since the war.

In this sentence, the prepositional phrase since the war indicates a temporal relationship between the verb phrase hasn't been the same and the object war.

The family survived despite the accident.

he prepositional phrase despite the accident in this sentence indicates a logical relationship between the survival of the family and the accident.

Responsible Use

There are no rules that govern how much nouns and verbs can be modified in English. Often writers employ prepositional phrases excessively, creating an almost comical effect in an attempt at over clarification. The following sentence implements a string of propositional phrases to modify the verb stood.

The old farmhouse stood for years, after the revolution, by the fork in the road, beyond the orange grove, over the wooden bridge, at the farthest edge of the family's land, toward the great basin, down in the valley, under the old mining town, outside the city's limits, and past the end of the county maintained road.

Prepositional phrases, in theory, can modify sentences infinitely. Therefore, it is important for writers to understand their form and function in order to make appropriate stylistic choices.

Further reading: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/prepositions/Prepositional-Phrases.html

List of prepositions: https://www.yourdictionary.com/index.php/pdf/articles/159.listof-prepositions.pdf

martes, 15 de septiembre de 2020

Noun Phrases

Noun phrases

Often a noun phrase is just a noun or a pronoun:

People like to have money.
I am tired.

Premodifiers

But noun phrases can also include:

determiners: Those houses are very expensive.
quantifiers: I've lived in a lot of houses.
numbers: My brother owns two houses.
adjectives: I love old houses.

These parts of the noun phrase are called premodifiers because they go before the noun.

We use premodifiers in this order:

determiners and quantifiers

numbers

adjectives + NOUNS

For example:

Determiners and quantifiers	Numbers	Adjectives	NOUNS
The	six		children
Our		young	children
	Six	young	children
These	six	young	children
Some		young	children
All those	six	young	children
Their many		young	children

Premodifiers 1
Premodifiers 2
Premodifiers 3

Postmodifiers

Other parts of a noun phrase go after the noun. These are called postmodifiers.

Postmodifiers can be:

prepositional phrases:

a man with a gun
the boy in the blue shirt
the house on the corner

–ing phrases :

the man standing over there
the boy talking to Angela

relative clauses :

the man we met yesterday
the house that Jack built
the woman who discovered radium
an eight-year-old boy who attempted to rob a sweet shop

that clauses. These are very common after nouns like idea, fact, belief, suggestion:

He's still very fit, in spite of the fact that he's over eighty.
She got the idea that people didn't like her.
There was a suggestion that the children should be sent home.

to infinitives :

I've got no decent shoes to wear.

These are very common after indefinite pronouns and adverbs:

You should take something to read.
I need somewhere to sleep.

There may be more than one postmodifier:

an eight-year old boy with a gun who tried to rob a sweet shop
that girl over there in a green dress drinking a Coke

Forming Fuller Ideas

No matter their form or function, noun phrases form fuller ideas. Instead of just talking about a dog, you can add an adjective to that noun and discuss a spotted dog. Instead of just saying they walked into the sunset, you can describe the scene with his laughter ringing through the air. You'll find many writers like to make use of noun phrases. It allows them to paint pictures, including a red-faced woman who found herself in an uncomfortable position.

miércoles, 9 de septiembre de 2020

Attributive and Predicative Adjectives

Most adjectives can occur both before and after a noun:

the blue sea	~ the sea is blue
the old man	~ the man is old
happy children	~ the children are happy

Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Those in the second position - after the noun - are called PREDICATIVE adjectives. Notice that predicative adjectives do not occur immediately after the noun. Instead, they follow a verb.

Source: https://7esl.com/predicate-adjective/

Sometimes an adjective does occur immediately after a noun, especially in certain institutionalised expressions:

the Governor General

the Princess Royal

times past

We refer to these as POSTPOSITIVE adjectives. Postposition is obligatory when the adjective modifies a pronoun:

something useful

everyone present

those responsible

Postpositive adjectives are commonly found together with superlative, attributive adjectives:

the shortest route possible

the worst conditions imaginable

the best hotel available

Most adjectives can freely occur in both the attributive and the predicative positions. However, a small number of adjectives are restricted to one position only. For example, the adjective main (the main reason) can only occur in the attributive position ~~(predicative: *the reason is main)~~. Conversely, the adjective afraid (the child was afraid) can only occur predicatively ~~(attributive: *an afraid child~~). Source: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/adjectiv/attribut.htm

martes, 25 de agosto de 2020

More about Nouns

Forming Plurals

Most nouns are made plural by adding s to the end. However, there are many other ways to form plurals, depending on the ending of the word. Here is a table showing the rules for forming the plurals in English: