The directions ask me to identify the gerund phrase.
A loud knocking interrupted their dinner.
Would the phrase be a loud knocking
and is it used as a subject?
Yes! You're right.
A loud knocking interrupted their dinner.
Yes, the gerund phrase in the sentence "A loud knocking interrupted their dinner" is "loud knocking." In this sentence, the gerund phrase functions as the subject of the sentence.
To identify the gerund phrase in the sentence "A loud knocking interrupted their dinner," you need to identify the verb form that ends in -ing and determine how it is functioning within the sentence.
In this sentence, the verb form "knocking" ends in -ing, indicating that it is a gerund. A gerund is a verb form that functions as a noun. In this case, the gerund phrase is "a loud knocking."
Now, let's determine how the gerund phrase is used in the sentence. In this case, "a loud knocking" is the subject of the sentence "A loud knocking interrupted their dinner." It is the noun phrase that is performing the action of interrupting the dinner.
So to recap, the gerund phrase in this sentence is "a loud knocking," and it is used as the subject of the sentence.