For example, the “-ing” form of a verb can be a present participle, like “The baby is crawling,” but the same -ing word can be a “gerund” instead of a participle. In other words, with most gray-area parts of speech, we grammarians do go by the job that the word does in the sentence to make the call. This decision to go with what the word is, instead of by what it does, is interesting because it is unusual. (The prepositions up and over in these examples are also a type of preposition called “particles,” but that’s a topic for a future episode!) It’s a gray area of grammar.”Īs a reminder, you may have learned that prepositions are little words like up, over, or with that express time, direction, and spatial relationships, while adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and entire sentences.
“It’s the difference between what something is and what something does: It’s a preposition doing a job that is typically associated with adverbs.
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