Meticulous: ever-scrupulous about minute details, very careful, accurate. This definition of the word is one that I thought correct, for it comes from the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current ...

Some experts have called this the “fused participle” and consider it inferior to the standard possessive-with-gerund structure. But it’s widely accepted as an idiom.

Gerunds often look like participles. The main difference: gerunds are always nouns, while participles are always adjectives. The former are often used to introduce the subject of a paragraph or ...

A participial phrase consists of a participle plus modifier (s), object (s), and/or complement (s)’. An earlier column discussed gerunds which, basically, are verbs with the ‘ing’ ending.

When the -ing word is a present participle in a participial phrase, its job is simply to modify a noun or pronoun. We would say, "This is me swimming in the lake," not "This is my swimming in the ...

3. When you use a verb as a subject, we usually put it in the gerund form. It is possible to use the infinitive but this can sound old-fashioned and formal. Playing volleyball is fun!

Grammar Fans Flock to a Film About Participles and Gerunds “Rebel With a Clause” celebrates the improbable cross-country journey of a woman who gently imparts grammar rules to strangers.