In following sentence is Knowing a verbal participle or a verbal gerund? Knowing how an engine works is the key to auto repair.
I want to say gerund because I say it is the subject.
You are absolutely correct.
To determine whether "Knowing" in the sentence "Knowing how an engine works is the key to auto repair" is a verbal participle or a verbal gerund, we first need to understand the differences between these two verb forms.
A verbal participle is a verb form that functions as an adjective, modifying a noun or a pronoun. It can be either present participle (ending in -ing) or past participle (usually ending in -ed or -en).
A verbal gerund, on the other hand, is a verb form that functions as a noun and is derived from a verb. It ends in -ing and can take on any noun function, such as being the subject, object, or complement in a sentence.
Based on this information, we can analyze the sentence in question. "Knowing how an engine works" is the subject of the sentence, which implies that it is acting as a noun. Therefore, we can conclude that "Knowing" in this sentence is a verbal gerund.
To arrive at this conclusion, you can also apply a simple test: try replacing "Knowing" with a regular noun. If the sentence still makes sense, then it is likely a gerund. In this case, if we replace "Knowing" with "Knowledge," the sentence would become "Knowledge of how an engine works is the key to auto repair," which makes perfect sense. Hence, "Knowing" is indeed a verbal gerund in the sentence provided.