Brevity by Dan Thompson for August 18, 2016

  1. I yam who i yam
    Kind&Kinder  about 8 years ago

    Well. he could always reNOUNce gerunds and simply use strong infinitives—or simply say “We” followed by the nouns that have been gerundized. Or stop trying to sound like Charlie Sheen!

     •  Reply
  2. Sunshine   copy
    SusanSunshine Premium Member about 8 years ago

    Ah but speeches sound so much more action packed in “Ing”-lish…

    And grammatically, I’d rather they were “nouning” verbs, with good old fashioned gerunds, than “verbing” nouns…especially when it comes to improbable ones like “securitized,” “friended,” and “dialogued.”Yeah yeah… and “verbing.”

     •  Reply
  3. 00712 whiteheron
    whiteheron  about 8 years ago

    boring…..?

     •  Reply
  4. Missing large
    shipl14  about 8 years ago

    I don’t think I can participle in this

     •  Reply
  5. Jock
    Godfreydaniel  about 8 years ago

    @SusanSunshineMy least favorite (currently) example of verbing a noun would be turning “primary” into a verb: “He was afraid he would be primaried and therefore became more extreme.”

     •  Reply
Sign in to comment

More From Brevity