Verbs as nouns and nouns as verbs

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Anonymous

#407567 Wed, 22 Aug 07 01:55 AM

First off, English is my first language, and I know it’s far from perfect but that is besides the point. I have a question (of course I have a question, why else would someone post!?) and I hope someone can help me with it, because it’s starting to really eat at me. I am in Germany trying to learn German, so help me god… and my German girlfriend studies English to be a teacher and I always get the some of the most random questions— naturally. Thinking [*-)] Thinking [8-)] Coffee [C] Indifferent [:|] Tongue Tied [:S] Angry [:@]

This one is the topic of this post:

She always asks “What is the noun of _______?” <Fill in the blank, “flee”

Ok this is easy with gerunds, I understand how they work of course; but did I miss one-too-many classes Crying [:'(] or am I just verrückt?

I know now flee is fle’er (I looked it up at dictionary.com), I don’t know why it didn’t come to me now as I say this to myself “fle’er” but seriously can someone give me some links or explain to me the relationship(s) between using verbs as nouns and nouns as verbs the other ways of going about it without the use of gerunds? Bitte? Please?

Is it not so crazy of her to ask what the noun of verbs are? I figured it was a German language thing considering German has almost for all verbs a noun form.

Thank you! Danke. Sleep [|-)] Sleep [S]

Anonymous

Nouns, Verbs, Gerunds

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Clive

#407580 Wed, 22 Aug 07 02:47 AM

Hi,

(of course I have a question, why else would someone post!?) Well, I post to try to answer questions. Smile [:)]

She always asks “What is the noun of _______?” <Fill in the blank, “flee” I would phrase it as what is the noun from __________ or What is the noun form of ____

Ok this is easy with gerunds, I understand how they work of course;

Fle'er may be in dictionary.com, but it seems like an extremely odd word to me. I don't remember ever hearing it. She shouldn't start with irregular kinds of verbs. I'd be inclined to say 'fugitive'. If you asked me a noun from 'flee', I'd say 'flight', defined by my dictionary as the act or manner of fleeing. Or 'fleeing', of course, is the gerund.I think she should think about why she is trying to teach her class in this manner. How does she hope it will benefit their English? If she still wants to continue, I think she should then consider teaching one category of noun at a time, and target that.

eg A person who works is a _________

Best wishes, Clive

Clive