pluralization of a gerund/verbal noun

Share on Facebook

Anonymous

#538592 Wed, 09 Jul 08 02:40 AM

Hi,

I think I heard someone using the words like "poundings" as in "poundings of a heart."

Can we make a plural out of a gerund or what CB seemed to have called a verbal noun?

Anonymous

Gerunds, Nouns, Plurals

Mr Wordy

#538613 Wed, 09 Jul 08 04:08 AM

With some verbs, yes. It depends on whether the "-ing" form of the verb is a recognised countable noun. For example, "there was a pounding" is fine, as is "poundings of the heart". On the other hand, "existings" (to pick an example at random) is unnatural because you never talk of "an existing".

I'm not sure there's any way to tell which verbs fall into which category except through experience of the language.

Mr Wordy

Joined on Tue, May 27 2008

Regular Member (960)

Native British English speaker

Countable nouns, Gerunds, Nouns, Verbs

CalifJim

#538638 Wed, 09 Jul 08 07:53 AM

Anonymous
Can we make a plural out of a gerund ... ?

No. It's not a productive process in English. Stick to those which already exist, such as those below.

awakenings, christenings, comings, coverings, findings, flavorings, furnishings, gatherings, goings, happenings, imaginings, offerings, openings, renderings, seasonings, sufferings, wanderings, writings

Learn others as you encounter them. Don't invent new ones indiscriminately.