-ing
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-ing is a
. The suffix is also found in certain words like morning and ceiling, and in names such as Browning.Etymology and pronunciation
The Modern English -ing ending, which is used to form both gerunds and present participles of verbs (i.e. in noun and adjective uses), derives from two different historical suffixes.
The gerund (noun) use comes from
The -ing of Modern English in its
The
The variants with /n/ may be denoted in writing with an
Formation
All English verbs (except for
Uses
The -ing form of a verb has both
The distinctions between these uses are explained in the following sections.
Distinction between gerunds and present participles
Gerunds and present participles are two types of
- I like eating cakes.
- Here eating is a gerund; the verb phrase eating cakes serves as a noun, being the object of the main verb like.
- I saw him eating a cake.
- Here eating is a present participle; the verb phrase eating a cake serves as an adjective, modifying him.
- Trying to succeed makes success more likely.
- Here trying is a gerund; the verb phrase trying to succeed serves as a noun, the subject of the main verb makes.
- He hurt his knee trying to get over the fence.
- Here trying is a present participle; the verb phrase trying to get over the fence has the function of an adverb in the main clause.
Confusion is most likely to arise when the -ing word follows a verb, in which case it may be a
Transformation | Gerund use | Participle use |
---|---|---|
(none) | John suggested asking Bill. | John kept asking Bill. |
Passivization | Asking Bill was suggested. | *Asking Bill was kept. |
Pronoun substitution | John suggested it. | *John kept it. |
Substitution of pure noun | John suggested the asking of Bill. | *John kept the asking of Bill. |
Replacement with finite clause
|
John suggested that Bill be asked. | *John kept that Bill be asked. |
Subject marking with possessive | John suggested our asking Bill. | *John kept his asking Bill. |
Clefting | Asking Bill is what John suggested. | *Asking Bill is what John kept. |
Left dislocation
|
Asking Bill John suggested. | *Asking Bill John kept. |
For more details of the usage of English gerunds and present participles, see
Distinction between verbal and deverbal uses
When used as a gerund or present participle, the -ing form is a
However the same verb-derived -ing forms are also sometimes used as pure nouns or adjectives.[5] In this case the word does not form a verb phrase; any modifiers it takes will be of a grammatical kind which is appropriate to a noun or adjective respectively.
For example:
- Shouting loudly is rude. (shouting is a gerund, modified by the adverb loudly)
- Loud shouting is something I can't stand. (shouting is a pure noun, modified by the adjective loud)
- I saw him exciting the crowds. (exciting is a participle, taking the object the crowds)
- It was a very exciting game. (exciting is a pure adjective, modified by very, an adverb typically applied to adjectives)
When used as a pure noun or adjective (i.e. having lost its grammatical verbal character), the -ing form may be called a
In some situations, the distinction between gerund/participle uses and deverbal uses may be lost, particularly when the -ing word appears on its own. For example, in "I like swimming", it is not clear whether swimming is intended as a gerund (as it would be in "I like swimming fast"), or as a pure noun (as in "I like competitive swimming"). There may be a distinction in meaning between the two interpretations: as a gerund, it means that the speaker likes to swim, while as a pure noun it does not specify in what way the speaker enjoys the activity (as a competitor, spectator, etc.)
The -ing form used as a pure noun usually denotes the action encoded by the verb (either in general or in a particular instance), as in the above examples. However it sometimes comes to take on other meanings, such as a physical object or system of objects: building, fencing, piping, etc.
For more information on the uses of non-finite verbs and verbal nouns, see
-ing words in other languages
English words constructed from verbs with the ending -ing are sometimes borrowed into other languages. In some cases they become pseudo-anglicisms, taking on new meanings or uses which are not found in English. For instance:
- brushing means "blow-dry" in many languages (including Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Spanish);
- camping means "campsite" in many languages (including Bulgarian, Dutch, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, and Spanish);
- footing has been used to mean "jogging" in some languages (including French and Italian)
- parking means "car park" or "parking lot" in many languages (including Bulgarian, Dutch, French, Italian, Persian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish);
- lifting means "facelift" in many languages (including Bulgarian, French, German, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Hebrew, and Spanish);
- shampooing means "shampoo" in French (pronounced [ʃɑ̃pwɛ̃]);
- shopping means "shopping mall" in Portuguese and Spanish;.
Some Germanic languages (including Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic) have a native -ing suffix, used mainly to form verbal action nouns, though generally not as productively as in English. For details, see the Wiktionary entry for -ing.
In Balochi the suffix -ag is used in a similar manner as -ing, by adding the suffix to the first form of a verb in order to construct a continuous verb, or to convert a verb into a noun. For example, war (eat) becomes warag (eating) or Òšt (stand) becomes Òštag (standing).
Other meanings of the suffix
The suffix -ing also has other uses in English, although these are less common. It may be used to form derivative nouns (originally masculine) with the sense "son of" or "belonging to", used as patronymics or diminutives. Examples of this use include surnames like Browning, Channing and Ewing, and common nouns like bunting, shilling, and farthing. The suffix can also mean "having a specified quality", as used in sweeting, whiting, and gelding.
For further details see the Wiktionary entry for -ing.
See also
- Ng (digraph)
References
- ^ "-ing (1)". Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Pisani, Vittore , Latino prōvincia, il suffisso indeuropeo *-enqu- e le formazioni germaniche in -inga- -unga- -ingō -ungō, Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1941.
- ISBN 0618043624.
Another pronunciation even more widely heard among older teens and adults in California and throughout the West is 'een' for -ing, as in 'I'm think-een of go-een camp-een.'
- ^ Walker, James A. (2019). "Sociophonetics at the intersection of variable processes: Variable in English (ING)" (PDF). In Sasha Calhoun; Paola Escudero; Marija Tabain; Paul Warren (eds.). Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019. Canberra: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc. pp. 34–37.
- ^ Phil White (August 7, 2006). "Re: Post Hey man, I gots [sic] ta know (Gerund versus gerundive)". Mon 1:35 pm