http://www.englishforums.com/English/EslGeneralEnglishGrammar-Questions/Forum12.htmAsk your questions on grammar and get your sentence checked. We answer lots of different types of general English grammar questions here. <font color=red>DO NOT post paragraphs and compositions here. Post them in our <a href="http://www.englishforums.com/English/EssayReportCompositionWriting/Forum9.htm"><b>Essay, Report and Composition Writing Forum</b></a>.</font>enXMOD (Build: 3614.32638)http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623660Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:44:45 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:623660Avangi0http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623660http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-623660.xmlBut you&#39;re right, GG! Now that I&#39;ve had a couple hours&#39; sleep, I can see that I got suckered by &quot;hkqq&#39;s&quot; label. Hot dang! How&#39;s that for an excuse? I was taking &quot;talking&quot; as a subject. (something like, Talking with students, including etc. etc., is etc.) How stupid. Your examples are perfectly appropriate. It&#39;s not a gerund. (How do you work all night long and get everything right??) Too much clutter, with all those labels in the way! I usually scrape all that garbage aside to figure what&#39;s really going on. No excuse! Sorry about that! - A.http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623503Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:44:45 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:623503Grammar Geek1http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623503http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-623503.xmlI&#39;ve never claimed to be good at naming things. Opening the box was a stupid idea - yes, gerund, sure. Opening the box, I was horrified to discover - how can that be anything but a particple phase? I opened the box. As I was opening the box. Oh well. People call things what they call things. Yet another reason that I find little value in running around throwing labels on things.http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623257Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:44:45 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:623257Avangi2http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623257http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-623257.xmlHi GG, I was tickled to hear you say that &quot;talking with youngsters&quot; is a participial phrase. I had been itching to say that for an hour. (Now I&#39;ll probably be scratching all night long!&quot;) I had learned in grammar school that &quot;gerund&quot; was a functional definition. But everyone here seems adamant that once a participle is assigned the function of a noun in a sentence, it may nevermore be called a participle, or thought of as a participle,in any way, shape or form. That pride of origin is allowed only to those lucky participles who are chosen to function as adjectives. In this last case &quot;participle&quot; describes what it was, what it is, and how it functions, as though &quot;participle&quot; were a new part...http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623211Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:44:45 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:623211Grammar Geek3http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623211http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-623211.xmlTalking with youngsters is a particple phrase. Racing from the library, I saw... Opening her purse, she was shocked to find... Eating breakfast late one morning, Edward realized... Is this useful to you in forming your own sentences? I wonder how identifying these part of speech and phrases helps you come up with your own, well-construted English sentences.http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623189Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:44:45 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:623189Avangi4http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htm#623189http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-623189.xmlTalking (Gerund) with youngsters (XXX phrase), including teenagers and university students (prepositional phrase) (YYY phrase), I (subject) found (verb) most (noun) were (verb) quite concerned (verb) about their future career (prepositional phrase) and (conjunction) were (verb) also (adv.) bewildered (verb) (adj. complement) about the purpose (prepositional phrase) of their lives (prepositional phrase). (XXX phrase) I don&#39;t know if you call this a gerundive phrase or a noun phrase. (YYY phrase) &quot;Including&quot; is a preposition in Canada only. In the rest of the world, this is a participial phrase. Also, that whole introductory phrase up to the subject &quot;I&quot; is probably considered a noun phrase, made up...http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htmFri, 24 Apr 2009 02:44:45 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:622330hkqq5http://www.englishforums.com/English/SyntaxAgain/hhlgl/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-622330.xmlHi Sir/Madam, is below syntax correct? Talking (Gerund) with youngsters including teenagers and university students (prepositional phrase), I (subject) found (verb) most (noun) were quite concerned (verb) about their future career (prepositional phrase) and (conjunction) were also bewildered (verb) about the purpose of their lives (prepositional phrase).