<p>Before painting the room, we removed the furniture.</p>
<p>Is painting a gerund or a participle ?</p>
<p>When answering the phone, be sure to give your number.</p>
<p>Is answering a gerund or a participle ?</p>
<p>First -> Gerund.</p>
<p>Second -> Participle.</p>
<p>^why? </p>
<p>char10</p>
<p>Tell me first though lol, am I right or wrong?</p>
<p>^ You are right(At least, my book says so.)</p>
<p>“Before painting the room, we removed the furniture.”</p>
<p>Well, honestly, I thought of “painting the room” as an action in the form of a noun, not a participle that modifies the state of another action. I came down to the true definition of a “gerund”, and it honestly fit the category here. “Painting the room” is by no standards a participle phrase, nor does it fit in this sentence. It’s a gerund.
I’m sorry I couldn’t be more explicit, but if it makes it any better, it’s just as ambiguous to you as it is to me.</p>
<p>“When answering the phone, be sure to give your number.”</p>
<p>Contradicting my first explanation now, I felt this phrase “answering the phone” was more of a participle than a gerund. It seemingly modifies the second clause of the sentence, which is “give your number”. Take it one step at a time now I guess. When should I give my number? I should give it when I’m “answering the phone”. The entire sentence could be rephrased into “Answering the phone, I gave my number”. This most definitely qualifies as a participle in my opinion. </p>
<p>Both questions were 50% intuition, 40% ear, and 10% grammar knowledge to me. Ironic. :-)</p>
<p>I’ll try to elaborate on SirWankAlot</p>
<ol>
<li>A gerund is a ACTION/VERB in the form of a NOUN. However, a gerund can never be a verb. Think of this:</li>
</ol>
<p>“I like swimming”</p>
<ul>
<li>Swimming is not a verb. The word “like” is the verb. So think of it as “I like something”. So swimming is the object, and thus a noun. So if you look at the sentence:</li>
</ul>
<p>“Before painting the room, we removed the furniture”</p>
<p>This probably is a sentence where where both “before painting the room” and “we removed the furniture” are dependent on each other because “before painting the room” does not have a complete cause (Subject –> Verb —> Object) or just the verb itself.</p>
<p>Since a gerund serves as a subject of a clause/sentence, the clause “Before painting the room” “room” serves as the object, while “painting” serves as a subject. The verb although is on the second clause (after the comma) which was “removed”</p>
<p>Wait did I confuse you?</p>