Is "running" a verb? My girlfriend told me that one of her teachers told her that running wasn't a verb. He told the class that in the sentence "I was running." that "was" is the verb.?
1 Answer
Apr 2, 2016
'Running' is a gerund, meaning it can be used as both a verb and a noun, because it ends in the '-ing' suffix. 'Was', in this case, is an auxiliary verb.
Explanation:
If you were to think about it particularly philosophically you could say that 'running' isn't a verb, and that you are identifying yourself through 'was' with the act of running, though it is much easier to simply say that 'running' is a gerund and is both verb and noun.
