I’m sharing here in the Forum my conversation on Messenger with Facebook friend GJH this morning:GJH: Hi, Sir! I don’t know if my sentence is correct, and I am not sure, too, how to explain it if it is correct: “
Being beautiful and handsome is simply one of the trends that keep on being exciting every year.” It is the “is” that concerns me. Maybe because of being beautiful and handsome... Thanks!
JAC: GJH, a gerund acting as the subject of a sentence is always considered singular—even if the gerund is formed by two or more nouns—if all of them are subsumed by the same participle form (“being”) that collectively makes them a gerund. This is obviously the case with the gerund phrase “being beautiful and handsome,” so your use of the singular “is” for it is correct in this sentence of yours: “Being beautiful and handsome is simply one of the trends that keep on being exciting every year.” It would be different though if the two attributes “beautiful” and “handsome” are each preceded by “being”; there will then be two separate gerunds at play and that sentence of yours will need the plural “are” and take this form: “
Being beautiful and being handsome are simply two of the trends that keep people excited year after year.”
IMAGE CREDIT: EN.PPT-ONLINE.ORGHaving said that, however, I must say that something’s wrong with the syntax of that sentence when it uses “being” to form the two gerund forms together with the word “trends” to describe the activity. Maybe it should take the more active gerund forms “keeping themselves beautiful” and “keeping themselves handsome,” as in, say, “
Keeping themselves beautiful and keeping themselves handsome are two preoccupations that keep people excited year after year.” In this form, though, it will decidedly be better to use “or” instead of “and” to transform the two gerunds into just one that needs the singular “is,” as in this construction: “
Keeping themselves beautiful or handsome is a major preoccupation that keeps people excited in doing year after year.”
This is admittedly getting complicated but I trust that you're getting the drift of all of these suggestions.
GJH: Thank you so much for the explanation! I am learning a lot, Sir.
JAC: You’re welcome, GJH! I’m glad to be of help.
