Quoting from message
posted on 31 Jan 2005 by John Hall
I would like to add:



My OED also calls "sitting"
a noun, which surprised me. It's the present particle of the verb "to
sit", which I would have thought made it a verb.

When I was at school the term used was "gerund", it's now "verb-noun" - but
still subject to some misuse, generally people will say "Do you mind me
sitting here?" whereas it should be "Do you mind my sitting here?"
(as would be with any other noun)

I think examples are more obvious in some other languages.

Then there's the "at one sitting" as mentioned by Colin which I think is
really this gerund/verb-noun.

However rules of grammar are constantly changing, or being dropped; some
regard this as progressive, others regard it as detrimental.

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