# Gerunds after "is" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346 "2013-12-15T02:27:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/1 "2013-12-15T02:27:53Z")
I’ve been writing something formal (a grad school statement of purpose). I’ve been corrected by someone on a phrase similar to the following: “A core mechanic of the game is training your creature…” My friend thinks it should be “A core mechanic of the game is to train your creature…” The latter sounds **so** stilted to my ear that I would personally believe it incorrect. I do note, however, that I’ve seen my grammar browser addon mark similar constructs to the former as “incorrect”, though I’ve never had such a thing marked wrong by English instructors. I probably will continue using a gerund there in everyday writing, but I’d like to know if in formal or academic writing there’s a strong preference for the latter. If so, I’ll begrudgingly use it in such contexts where my grammar will be nazi’d. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/2 "2013-12-15T02:52:40Z")
Here’s a start: > [@](#): > > Although a gerund and an infinitive will often have practically the same meaning (“Running in the park after dark can be dangerous” and “To run in the park after dark can be dangerous”), there can be a difference in meaning. Gerunds are used to describe an “actual, vivid, or fulfilled action” whereas \*\*infinitives are better used to describe “potential, hypothetical, or future events” \*\*(Frodesen & Eyring 297). This is especially true with three kinds of verbs: verbs of emotion, verbs of completion/incompletion, and verbs of remembering. From [this style guide.](http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm) It doesn’t look as though your original wording was ‘wrong,’ only that maybe there’s a consensus in style that the infiitive might be a better choice. Edit: It doesn’t appear to me that the fact that it follows a copula is relevant. ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/3 "2013-12-15T02:56:46Z")
If this is the kind of writing and style choice professors at your school are grading kids on, you must have some amazing writers at that school. I personally like the second one better, but I think it would also depend on the rest of that sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/4 "2013-12-15T04:53:34Z")
I’m surprised by the use of “mechanic”, which normally means a person, but here seems to refer to an activity. I’d say “A core mechanism of the game is training your creature…” But perhaps “mechanic” has some new definition in gaming circles. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/5 "2013-12-15T07:49:51Z")
> [@Space\_Vegetable](#): > > I’m surprised by the use of “mechanic”, which normally means a person, but here seems to refer to an activity. I’d say > > “A core mechanism of the game is training your creature…” > > But perhaps “mechanic” has some new definition in gaming circles. It’s definitely an established term, see Wikipedia: [Game mechanics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_mechanics). ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/6 "2013-12-15T14:55:48Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > a phrase similar to the following: In reality however, we don’t know how similar. You presented us with a sentence that you feel is syntactically equivalent to the one that was deprecated by your colleague. But it’s possible that some seemingly extraneous aspect would motivate a different choice in the example sentence. Having said that, while the use of the gerund after the copula seems fine to me, one concern in this case is that the resulting sentence is ambiguous (it can be parsed with the noun phrase “a core mechanic” as the subject and the verb phrase “is training…” rather than the intended meaning where "the “is” couples two noun phrases). The choice of the infinitive helps to reduce this ambiguity and avoid a “[garden path](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence)” effect. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/7 "2013-12-15T15:58:24Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > “A core mechanic of the game is training your creature…” I don’t think there’s anything _wrong_ with this wording except that it can be parsed in more than one way: it makes me picture a guy with a wrench who is busy training your creature. To remove the ambiguity, I’d either go with the second wording (“to train”) or change the word order (“Training your creature is a core mechanic of the game”). i.e. what **hibernicus** said ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/8 "2013-12-15T16:27:37Z")
My ear is happier with ‘core mechanism’, but I am old. ---
**Author:** ![yearofglad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b782af/32.png) [@yearofglad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yearofglad)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/9 "2013-12-15T16:39:33Z")
Re: mechanic vs. mechanism, I suspect it depends on who your audience is. I’m an avid board gamer and so reading “core mechanic” made total sense to me and I never even considered that you meant a person who fixes cars, etc. I think mechanic is perfectly acceptable as you’ve used it. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/10 "2013-12-15T22:58:24Z")
I’d say: both are correct second one is more formal, but not at all “stilted” I’d go with your friend. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/11 "2013-12-15T23:07:32Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > In reality however, we don’t know how similar. You presented us with a sentence that you feel is syntactically equivalent to the one that was deprecated by your colleague. But it’s possible that some seemingly extraneous aspect would motivate a different choice in the example sentence. Okay, I’ll admit that it’s actually the exact phrase I used. I said “similar” to hedge my bets because I didn’t want to look up and see if I used identical wording. It is that exact phrase. And as for the mechanic/mechanism thing, I think given the context of the paper most of the readers would be familiar with the term. Especially with the added context in the paragraph. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/12 "2013-12-15T23:14:55Z")
Missed edit: I did decide to go with the infinitive though, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/13 "2013-12-16T00:57:31Z")
‘Core component’ or ‘critical need’ both sound better to me. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/14 "2013-12-16T01:57:26Z")
> [@Cerealbox](#): > > If this is the kind of writing and style choice professors at your school are grading kids on, you must have some amazing writers at that school. > > I personally like the second one better, but I think it would also depend on the rest of that sentence. At many universities the professor does not have the last word on acceptable style, there’s a whole different department that ensures thesis and dissertation papers adhere to the acceptable style and these people are seriously particular. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/15 "2013-12-16T03:30:06Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > The latter sounds **so** stilted to my ear that I would personally believe it incorrect. I do note, however, that I’ve seen my grammar browser addon mark similar constructs to the former as “incorrect” In my experience, this sort of thing is usually the fault of the grammar checker not understanding a the purpose of a word in the sentence. Real grammar checking requires understanding the meaning of what is being said, and no software can actually do that. So it falls back on rules, e.g. assuming that a certain word is always a certain part of speech. I bet if you gave examples of these marked constructs, posters would easily find a word or phrase that is tripping up the grammar checker. As, ultimately, neither construct (in general) is wrong. Both gerunds and infinitives can be used for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/16 "2013-12-16T04:02:53Z")
Shouldn’t it be '. . . of the game is \*the \*training \*of \*. . . ’ If you put in another noun like ‘instruction’ I think it works pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Clipper222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/97f17d/32.png) [@Clipper222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clipper222)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/17 "2013-12-16T22:18:59Z")
Yes, I was also going to suggest, “the training of” as a better sounding alternative to both. A mechanic (either a guy with a wrench or a mechanism) is a noun and “the training of”, while not technically a noun, has the feel of a specific item. It is a practice, and a practice is a noun. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gerunds-after-is/676346/18 "2013-12-16T23:03:18Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > My ear is happier with ‘core mechanism’, but I am old. I agree (I’m 35) now get off our lawns!