The motorist, confused by conflicting directions, lost his way.
Verbal phrase: Gerund
Being used as: Adverb?
Both answers are wrong. Go back and study these topics again.
Your dumb because I got them right.
It's not "Your" in this sentence, it's "You're."
Anonymous, who told you those answers were right? If it was your teacher, then you need to get a new teacher. Holy smoke!!
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/phrases.htm#participial
The driving rain destroyed the young and tender crops.
The verbal phrase "conflicting directions" functions as a gerund in the given sentence. Instead of acting as an adverb, it actually functions as a noun phrase and serves as the object of the preposition "by."
To identify the gerund in a sentence, you can follow these steps:
1. Identify the word in question that ends in -ing. In this case, it is "conflicting."
2. Determine how the word is being used in the sentence. In this case, it is describing the noun "directions" and showing that the directions are conflicting.
By understanding the function of the word and its role in the sentence, you can correctly identify it as a gerund.