In Nouns^x, Dialects^x, Constructions^x

Congratulations on your hard work. - A. Edit. "Why is the article "the" essential here?"

Hi Avangi, It is a proper word according to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary.

OED The gerund still retains one feature of the verbal noun, namely, that of admitting of a preceding possessive case or possessive pronoun, as in " after John's behaving so strangely ", " upon my readily granting it ". In the literary language this construction is regularly retained with a...

Hello MrP History of English Gerunds (quoted from OED) The most notable development of the verbal nouns in form of -ing is its use as a gerund, i.e. a substantive with certain verbal functions, particularly those of being qualified by an adverb instead of an adjective, and of governing an...