Sentence Correction

after gradual declining

* after gradual declining to about 39 hours in 1970
* after gradually declining to about 39 hours in 1970

which one is correct?
the explanation given is (in OG)
declining must be modified by the adverb gradually ,and not by adjective gradual
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but declining is a gerund(noun), and it can not be modified by an adverb

please explain

Of-course " after gradually declining to about 39 hours in 1970 " is correct because you cannot modify verb with Adjective.

So cross the sentence wherever you find some adjective is modifying the verb.

Adjective can only modify any Noun or another adjective.

declining is not a noun ...its a verb ...so needs gradually to modify it ...


I believe you are getting confused by taking 'declining' as a noun which is NOT

but declining is a gerund( -ing, noun), and it can not be modified by an adverb

please explain

panacea6565 wrote:but declining is a gerund( -ing, noun), and it can not be modified by an adverb

please explain

How declining can be a noun? It is an action in the given statement. So it must be verb.