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rules for -ing forms

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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rules for -ing forms

by moadhia » Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:23 am
i have couple of questions on the usage of -ing as a modifier.

so for e.g: ... supply was decreasing, leading to ..

would "leading to..." phrase modify the noun closest to it or would it modify a certain phrase ( I have seen both happening in questions)? How can one differentiate when -ing is being used to modify a noun or a phrase ? I am really confused with this part.


on the topic of -ing, how can it form a subject of a sentence. for e.g:

"having good friends is a blessing"....

here "having good friends" is the subject of the sentence.... How can one go about figuring that out? I would have looked at friends and changed IS -> ARE.

Sorry if this is too basic, but I am having a hard time understanding this.
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by VP_Jim » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:51 pm
In this case, "having" is a gerund; that is, a noun that ends in -ing. So, it looks like a verb when it's really a noun.

The way you can tell what the subject is - for any sentence, not just ones with "ing" - is to ask yourself who or what is doing the action.

In this case, the action (verb) is the word "is". So, you ask yourself: "what is a blessing?" ... "HAVING...".

So, that's the subject since it's doing the action.

Hope this helps!
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by hemanth28 » Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:15 am
VP_Jim wrote:In this case, "having" is a gerund; that is, a noun that ends in -ing. So, it looks like a verb when it's really a noun.

The way you can tell what the subject is - for any sentence, not just ones with "ing" - is to ask yourself who or what is doing the action.

In this case, the action (verb) is the word "is". So, you ask yourself: "what is a blessing?" ... "HAVING...".

So, that's the subject since it's doing the action.

Hope this helps!
I like the explanation!! Cleared my doubt as well...
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