Please clarify my doubts related to parallelism.
Can gerund & noun be parallel ?
Decrease in tuition costs and hiring better teachers will improve the overall attendance of students.
I agree that "decreasing .. and hiring.." is perfectly parallel. But, I do remember reading somewhere that example such as above is correct.
Please explain. thanks a bunch.
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- lionKing1976
- dps
Gerund is also noun, so they can be parallal.
Problem for me is evaluating whether verb-ing is gerund or verb
e.g in one of the questions, below 4 phrases were involved:
1. population explosion in the west
2. the decline of Native Americans
3. joining of East Coast culture and Western Convention
4. cultivation of thousands of acres of new farm land
According to that book. this is wrong because #3 "joining.." is used a verb
To correct the problem, author changed #3 to "the joining of East coast culture and wester convention"
I couldn't understand why "joining.. " is verb and "the joining.." is gerund
Problem for me is evaluating whether verb-ing is gerund or verb
e.g in one of the questions, below 4 phrases were involved:
1. population explosion in the west
2. the decline of Native Americans
3. joining of East Coast culture and Western Convention
4. cultivation of thousands of acres of new farm land
According to that book. this is wrong because #3 "joining.." is used a verb
To correct the problem, author changed #3 to "the joining of East coast culture and wester convention"
I couldn't understand why "joining.. " is verb and "the joining.." is gerund
- JonathanSchneider
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 370
- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:40 pm
An -ing form can play one of four roles: part of a verb, noun (gerund), adjective, or adverb. To be part of a verb, it must be accompanied by some form of the verb "to be." As a gerund, it is a standalone noun; we sometimes, but not always, use the word "the" to emphasize that the word is to be read as a noun. If it is simply modifying a noun, it is an adjective, and it will generally be right next to that noun without a comma. If it is following a comma (but not part of a list), it is most likely an adverb; in this case it will often introduce a longer adverbial modifier.
Because the -ing form after a comma is usually read as an adverb, we often include an article such as "a" or "the" before the -ing form when we mean it as a noun. In this case, it can in fact be parallel with other nouns. I can think of a couple of examples from the OG where we have -ing nouns set parallel with other nouns. What keeps these parallel is more than just the fact that they are nouns; they are also action nouns (nouns that suggest some sort of action, for instance: "the ripping.")
Because the -ing form after a comma is usually read as an adverb, we often include an article such as "a" or "the" before the -ing form when we mean it as a noun. In this case, it can in fact be parallel with other nouns. I can think of a couple of examples from the OG where we have -ing nouns set parallel with other nouns. What keeps these parallel is more than just the fact that they are nouns; they are also action nouns (nouns that suggest some sort of action, for instance: "the ripping.")
4 posts Page 1 of 1