Question posted as a private message by Pipes, Forum member (June 30, 2011):
Good day!
I would just like to bring up with you a grammar question I am currently dealing with.
Am I right that “spending much of their time” is a gerund phrase?
Does the verb “spend” only take a gerund? For example: “I usually spend my day off watching T.V.”
I look forward to hearing from you.
My reply to Pipes:
You are not necessarily right in calling “spending much of their time” a gerund phrase.
By definition, a gerund is an English verbal ending in “-ing” that functions as a noun in a sentence; as such, it can take on the role of subject, object, or object of the preposition. By extension, a gerund phrase is a gerund followed by its object or any modifier that pertains to that gerund, as in this sentence: “Holding two jobs simultaneously requires a lot of discipline.” Here, the gerund is “holding” and the gerund phrase is “holding two jobs simultaneously,” and the role of that gerund phrase is as subject—and doer of the action—of the sentence.
Based on this definition, we could be sure that a phrase like “spending much of their time” is functioning as a gerund phrase only if is actually used in a sentence. It will be a gerund phrase in this sentence, “Spending much of their time on Facebook is a preoccupation of many teenagers these days,” where “spending much of their time”—modified by the phrase “on Facebook”—serves as the subject of the sentence. It will also be a gerund phrase in this other sentence, “Many teenagers these days find themselves spending much of their time on Facebook,” where “spending much of their time”—modified by the phrase “on Facebook”—serves as a noun complement of the verb phrase “find themselves.” In contrast, it isn’t a gerund phrase in this sentence, “Many teenagers are spending much of their time on Facebook,” where it’s actually a regular part of the verb phrase “are spending much of their time,” and where “are spending” is the present progressive form of the verb “spend.”
As to your second question: “Does the verb ‘spend’ only take a gerund?” I don’t understand what you mean by that question, but if what you meant is, “Does the verb ‘spend” take only the gerund form,” the answer is no. It can be a regular verb, as in the sentence you provided, “I usually spend my day off watching T.V.,” or it can take the infinitive form, “I like to spend my day off watching T.V.”, where to spend is the direct object of the verb “like.” It can also take the past participle form, as in “The spent bullets were recovered from the crime scene,” where “spent” functions as an adjective modifying the noun “bullets,” or the present participle form, as in “My father gave me spending money for my weekend outing,” where “spending” functions as an adjective modifying the noun “money.”
