The first 2 are in the gerund form... This means they act as a noun - same with alcohol consumption.

HI Jim,

As "alcohol consumption" is an action noun, can it be made parallel to simple gerund - "eating rich food"?

I think only complex gerunds can be made parallel to action nouns.

Please help

Jim@StratusPrep wrote:The first 2 are in the gerund form... This means they act as a noun - same with alcohol consumption.

cigarette smoking is a complex gerund.
"cigarette smoking" is preferred to "the smoking of cigarette" . (both being complex gerunds)

alcohol consumption is an action noun.

eating rich food..... (i think it's a simple gerund)

manhattan SC guide strongly advises against making complex gerunds // with simple gerunds.how do we justify such a usage?

I would request experts to please provide some clarification on this.

Mission2012 wrote:HI Jim,

As "alcohol consumption" is an action noun, can it be made parallel to simple gerund - "eating rich food"?

I think only complex gerunds can be made parallel to action nouns.

Please help

shankar245 wrote:Experts,
Your view please/
Doctors generally agree that such factors as cigarette smoking, eating rich foods high in fats, and alcohol consumption not only ... but also


I'm okay with the non underlined portion but what I'm confused is with this

factors such as
1) cigarette smoking
2) eating rich foods high in fats
3) and alcohol consumption

The 3rd part is not parallel to the other two !
Why do not we have it as consuming alcohol. This is still correct!

Is there any particular reason or is it one of those exceptions that we need to focus on

Some verbs have both a DEDICATED NOUN FORM and a GERUND form.
For instance, to turn to resign into a noun, we can say resignation (the dedicated noun form) or resigning (the gerund form).
Generally, the dedicated noun form is preferable to the gerund form.
It is for this reason that the list above says consumption (the dedicated noun form of to consume) rather than consuming (the gerund form).
Neither to smoke nor to eat has a dedicated noun form; to change these verbs to nouns, we have no choice but to use the gerund forms (smoking and eating).
Hence, the list above offers three nouns, each in its most preferred version: smoking, eating, consumption.

SC28 in the OG12 features a similar list. Check here:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/sentence-cor ... 86697.html

In cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, cigarette and alcohol serve as ADJECTIVES.
What kind of smoking?
CIGARETTE smoking.
What kind of consumption?
ALCOHOL consumption.