The Participial Adjective Part of English

“The Participial Adjective Part of English”



  I’ve always found the I-N-G words in English grammar rather annoying and bothersome. Of course Gerunds are I-N-G words that look like verbs but act like nouns in sentences.   For example the sentences “Skating is fun,” “My favorite sport is skating,” “I like skating” and “There are many moves in ice skating” show the Gerund skating as a subject, as a predicate nominative following a linking verb, as a direct object following an action verb and as an object of the preposition “in.” Gerunds only occasionally give me a hard time as in the cases of me not wanting to own a lightning rod out of fear of being electrocuted or me wondering in which direction a newspaper heading is actually heading.

  The I-N-G ending (or Present Participle) words that behave like verbs occasionally give me a hassle. I sometimes speculate that “mowing lawns” could cut me up pretty good and that “pet grooming” advertised on a sign makes me think, “I don’t want any pet grooming me!” I mean “painting houses” could change your skin color in-a-hurry and “hearing aids” sounds plenty more dangerous than H-I-V. Revolving charge accounts can make you dizzy if you watch one long enough, and I often wonder if fencing companies sometimes abandon using sabers and instead fight with swords?   If an idea is swimming around in my head, would I then be a candidate for contracting water on the brain? Incidentally I believe that eating crow is for the birds, particularly the buzzards, but I prefer telling the truth while standing up rather than lying on the ground. And how could a person ever be caught throwing a tantrum unless the spectator knows exactly what a tantrum looks like and how much it weighs. And once at a circus sideshow I was gullible and paid a dollar to see “the man-eating crabs” only to walk into a back room and see a man sitting at a table eating crabs.

  Sure stupid jokes can be made by inter-playing ing verbs but...