presentparticiple (pluralpresent participles)
Present participles of English verbs are always formed with the suffix-ing. The Englishprogressive (continuous) verb aspect isperiphrastic — a phrase comprising a finite inflection (for the person, number and tense) of theauxiliary verbbe followed by the full verb’s present participle. (The progressive can combine with other aspects; theperfect progressive aspect is periphrastically constructed with a finitely inflected auxiliary verbhave + present participle ofbe (i.e.,being) + past participle of the full verb.)
When a participle functions as a noun, it is called agerund. A participle may also function as an adjective (that is, aparticipial adjective), especially inattributive use. It can evolve to become either a truenoun or a trueadjective, or both, with a shift in meaning, sometimes substantial. To see examples, look for words ending in “-ing” inCategory:English adjectives andCategory:English nouns.
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