Stalking the elusive present participle Playing with English grammar is fun until you call a word a gerund when it isn’t. By Neil Steinberg Jan 13, 2022, 8:30am PDT ...

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.

What Warren Clements writes on the gerund and its difference from the present participle is clear and illuminating (In Case You Missed The Class On Gerunds - Review, June 16).

Beware, though, that not every “-ing” word is a gerund. Some are merely the present participle of the verb, as in “We are happy with the woman who is knitting our baby’s booties.” (The participial ...