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While waiting for service, patrons can enjoy coffee and snacks and mingle with their neighbors in need.

Is "waiting" in this sentence a gerund or participle?

This sentence and question actually came out of an SAT practice test; the answer key says that "waiting" is a gerund and corresponds to the preposition "for". After posting this question and looking at other places too, I am convinced that its a participle describing the noun "patrons". Is that accurate?

herisson
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Jeamz
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    It doesn't matter. The important thing is that it is a verb. – BillJ Apr 30 '18 at 17:59
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    How can "waiting correspond to for"? While [they are] waiting for service. The "they are" is implied. I do not understand how any self-respecting linguist would deny that. – Lambie Feb 11 '21 at 15:09

3 Answers3

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I agree with johnlee that "waiting" in this sentence should be classified as a participle, not a gerund, if you are working in a framework that makes that distinction.

(Comments by members like BillJ correctly point out that not all frameworks do make this distinction; however, as far as I know, there is not yet a unanimous consensus in favor of the position that it is theoretically impossible to distinguish "gerunds" from "present participles" in English. You can see some relevant comments beneath the following Language Log post : Gerunds vs. participles. The linguist Greg Lee made the following comments on this site about the post:

  • Liberman's post makes no sense to me. Because Liberman as a child couldn't tell the difference between gerund and participle, I'm supposed to assume they're the same? What kind of reasoning is that? – Greg Lee Dec 22 '16 at 5:11

  • I looked below in the comments at Stephen C. Carlson's summarizing the CGEL "argument". He says "OK, I've had a look at CGEL about abolishing the distinction between gerund and participle, and I have to admit that I didn't find the discussion particularly clear or persuasive." Based on his account, I agree with him. – Greg Lee Dec 22 '16 at 5:21

Also, see Araucaria's answer here: Difference between gerund and present participle. There is more complicated discussion beneath Greg Lee's answers to "Do these two sentences use the possessive case of gerunds properly?" and "How can you tell when a participle is being used as an adjective?")

I disagree with johnlee's statement that "A rule of thumb is that it's a present participle if it's used like a verb, or a gerund like a noun."

The salient characteristic of a participle is not that it is "used like a verb" but that it is a verb used like an adjective. (We wouldn't need any special word for a verb used as a verb.)

For example, in the progressive construction ("They are waiting"), the participle "waiting" is used after the copular verb be, similarly to how an adjective like "awake" occurs with the copular verb be when used predicatively: "They are awake".

To distinguish a participle from a gerund, therefore, you should try to figure out if the verb (or the phrase headed by the verb) is acting more like an adjective--in which case it is a participle--or more like a noun (more properly, according to some linguists, this would say "like a noun phrase")--in which case it is a gerund. (One point that may cause confusion: according to most systems of grammatical terminology for English, neither the term "gerund" nor the term "participle" is applicable if the word actually is a noun or an adjective—only if the word is a verb "acting as"/"used as" as noun or adjective. A noun ending in "-ing" may be categorized as a "gerundial noun" and an adjective ending in "-ing" may be categorized as a "(de)participial adjective", but these are not considered to be the same as gerunds and present participles.)

We can use adjectives after "while":

But we can't use nouns referring to states or activities after "while" in a similar fashion:

  • *While sleep, people dream.

So it seems to me that "waiting" is not a gerund here, and therefore must be a participle.

(Comments point out that predicative noun phrases can appear after "while", as in "while a student". However, a gerund doesn't have the right meaning to be used in that context.)

Another reason I feel like "waiting" is a participle here is because the sentence seems similar in meaning, and I think in structure, to sentences like "While patrons are waiting for service, they can enjoy coffee and snacks and mingle with their neighbors in need." In the preceding sentence, "waiting" is obviously a participle and not a gerund.

herisson
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    Excellent and correct answer. Why has this been downvoted? –  Feb 26 '19 at 16:26
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    Whiz-deletion can lead to nominal complements: “While still a kitten, Fluffy had already learned to climb to the top of our apple tree.” – tchrist Feb 11 '21 at 14:55
  • While I find most classification systems inadequate in some respects when trying to analyse this sort of sentence, essentially dependent on constituency test preference, and would argue that a gradience model is more accurate than rival attempts to lump, I would say that waiting here is nearer the verb end of the cline than the noun (and if a 3-D [tetrahedral] rather than a linear model is preferred, including adjective and preposition, it is a long lond way from either of these two extremes). More verby than nouny. – Edwin Ashworth Feb 11 '21 at 14:58
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"While (they are) waiting" is what's called a (reduced) participle clause.

  • Before going out, ...,
  • Instead of complaining about it,...
  • In spite of having read....,
  • etc.

Following a conjunction or preposition.

So "waiting" would be a participle.

Matt E. Эллен
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fragflan
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It is a present participle.

A rule of thumb is that it's a present participle if it's used like a verb, or a gerund like a noun.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English says:

gerund

a noun in the form of the present participle of a verb

Edit:
This edit has little to do with the OP's question.
Due to constraints on space and markdown tags in comments, here are some sources for Jason Bassford.

Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English says:

waiting
I. noun
Waiting is used before these nouns: area, list, lounge, period, room, staff, time

swimming
noun
Swimming is used before these nouns: cap, championship, costume, gala, gear, goggles, instructor, lesson, pool, shorts, stroke, suit, thing, trunk

running
I. noun
activity/sport
• RUNNING + NOUN event, race | gear | clothes (AmE), pants (AmE), shoe, shorts, tights (AmE), vest (BrE) | track

sewing
noun
• SEWING + NOUN basket, kit | needle, thread | machine | room (esp. AmE)

OALD says (in addition to the online version linked to in the comment far below):

waiting
wait·ing 7 [waiting] BrE [ˈweɪtɪŋ] NAmE [ˈweɪtɪŋ] noun uncountable
1. the fact of staying where you are or delaying doing sth until sb/sth comes or sth happens
• No waiting (= on a sign at the side of the road, telling vehicles that they must not stop there).
2. the fact of working as a waiter or waitress

From Roget's II The New Thesaurus 3th Ed.:

waiting
noun
An act or the time of waiting: wait. See CONTINUE.

From AHD:

wait·ing wātĭng)
n.
1. The act of remaining inactive or stationary.
2. A period of time spent waiting.

From Webster's New World:

waiting wait·ing
noun
Waiting is defined as the process of remaining or staying.

There are tons more, but I suppose these should be more than enough.

Also, please have a look at noun adjunct.

johnlee
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  • But that definition is not the only one in use, and in fact many grammarians reject the term 'gerund' as having conflicting definitions. The noun ... verb ing-form gradience/grey area has been covered here many times. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 30 '18 at 20:09
  • And it would be a gerund if used in the phrase "Patrons were found in the *waiting* room." Also, it's not being used like a verb. It is a verb. In contrast to a gerund, where a verb is being used as a noun. – Jason Bassford May 01 '18 at 07:59
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    @Jason Bassford No, "waiting" in "the waiting room" is an uncountable noun, which is used as a noun adjunct, modifying "room". – johnlee May 01 '18 at 08:19
  • @Edwin Ashworth Valid point. Hence my wording "rule of thumb". – johnlee May 01 '18 at 08:23
  • @johnlee It's a compound noun, with the gerund being used as an adjective. It's a "room for waiting." (You will never find "waiting" listed in any dictionary as a noun.) It's no different than a "swimming pool," "running shoe," or "sewing machine." And it's definitely not uncountable. Most buildings have only a single waiting room, but the count is still one. – Jason Bassford May 01 '18 at 09:12
  • @Jason Bassford: Well, the guys at OALD, TFD and Oxford Collocations Dictionary all disagree with you. I'm telling you. It is neither a gerund nor a verb. It is a noun listed as a noun in major dictionaries as shown above. The same applies to swimming, running and sewing as well. – johnlee May 01 '18 at 11:34
  • Also, from OALD: wait·ing 7 [waiting] BrE [ˈweɪtɪŋ] NAmE [ˈweɪtɪŋ] noun uncountable You're confused and mixing "room" and "waiting" up. "Room" is of course countable, but "waiting" is an uncountable noun. – johnlee May 01 '18 at 11:38
  • @johnlee Obviously, there is no definitive answer. Different sources define it differently. https://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/noun-gerund/ https://www.ef.com/english-resources/english-grammar/gerund/ (at the botttom) https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/participles-and-gerunds : "We took a skiing vacation. (a vacation for skiing—gerund)." https://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/nouncompound.html – Jason Bassford May 01 '18 at 14:33
  • @johnlee Although I see the reference in Oxford to "waiting" as a noun, it's really when it's used as a noun, as part of an expression, where that makes sense. It's talking more about function. Merriam-Webster, on the other hand, defines the single word waiting only as a verb. (Although it offers noun definitions of the associated wait.) – Jason Bassford May 01 '18 at 14:41
  • @JasonBassford: 1. You expressly said "You will never... in any dictionary", which has been disproved by multiple counterexamples. 2. Merriam-Webster? No single dictionary has an exhaustive list of all words or denotations, and you know it very well. 3. OCD explicitly lists "waiting" as a noun when used before "room", as shown in the above edit made 2 hrs ago if you haven't read it yet. 4. function? That's exactly what parts of speech are about. "Waiting" functions as a noun in "waiting room", or a noun adjunct to be more precise. – johnlee May 01 '18 at 15:13
  • @johnlee You're missing the point. There's a big difference between something that functions as something else and something that actually is something else. Further, your statement that waiting room is "neither a gerund nor a verb" means that you are contradicting the definition of gerund that you yourself provided: "a noun in the form of the present participle of a verb." If you now say that waiting room is not a gerund, you need to edit your answer to remove that possibility. – Jason Bassford May 01 '18 at 15:40
  • @JasonBassford: 5. Yes, LDCE says it. No, I do not contradict the definition. Just because human beings are mammals doesn't mean that all mammals are human beings. Not all words ending in "ing" are gerunds in every context. 6. I just checked out the sources you presented, and those bloggers do appear to disagree with the authors and editors of a number of dictionaries I presented (There are more.). I think it is quite obvious which group provides authoritative and credible references. – johnlee May 01 '18 at 16:31
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    @johnlee This sentence and question actually came out of an SAT practice test; The answer key says that "waiting" is a gerund and corresponds to the preposition "for". After posting this question and looking at other places too, I am convinced that its a participle describing the noun "patrons". Do you think that's accurate? – Jeamz May 01 '18 at 19:51
  • @johnlee Mignon Fogarty is a very well renowned authority on grammar, and is listed in most grammarians' online references as a being credible. However, I came across something that (to me) gives an actual analysis of the situation rather than just stating a fact. https://literalminded.wordpress.com/category/morphology/gerunds-and-participles/ According to the linguist, waiting in this question is a participle (which we all agree on), and waiting room is a gerund. Although, honestly, I would have been happy if it had concluded it wasn't. – Jason Bassford May 02 '18 at 02:48
  • @Jeamz: a participle describing the noun "patrons". Yes. it's merely a short form of "While they are waiting for service", where the obvious part, "they are" is dropped. – johnlee May 02 '18 at 04:27
  • @JasonBassford: 7. Not all linguists agree on everything (as is the case with her disagreement with CGEL), and what one linguist asserts is not necessarily a "fact" until an overwhelming majority of the scholars agree, which agreement is embodied in the form of dictionaries. 8. I, too, would've considered it to be a gerund if it were not listed as a noun in dictionaries as you asserted, which, however, is evidently not the case. – johnlee May 02 '18 at 04:38
  • @johnlee: It's certainly true that not all linguistics agree on everything. However, a dictionary is a bad place to look if you want to find out what linguists think. – herisson May 02 '18 at 19:02
  • (Oops, read "linguists" for "linguistics" in the above comment.) I wrote an answer that describes the parts of this answer that I don't agree with. – herisson May 02 '18 at 19:26
  • @Mari-LouA: "The dictionary definitions ...", which was exactly why I clarified the purpose of the edit. Yes, it does somewhat obfuscate my answer to the OP's question, but I had little options as I stated. Okay, I just added one more line to minimize the potential confusion. – johnlee May 03 '18 at 06:07