Hi all, this community has been extremely helpful to me. Today I am here again with another question. I ll be grateful if someone could help me with my question.

They quickly began preparing breakfast.

Could someone please tell me what parts of speech “began & preparing” are in this sentence. Please I need clarification and reasoning, so a through explanation will be much appreciated. Thanks

Question

Hi all, this community has been extremely helpful to me. Today I am here again with another question. I ll be grateful if someone could help me with my question.

They quickly began preparing breakfast.

Could someone please tell me what parts of speech “began & preparing” are in this sentence. Please I need clarification and reasoning, so a through explanation will be much appreciated. Thanks

Answer

'Began' is a past tense form of a verb and 'preparing' is a gerund (a noun formed from a verb).

Answer

In the sentence "They quickly began preparing breakfast," the words "began" and "preparing" are both verbs. Here's a breakdown of their parts of speech and their roles in the sentence:

"Began":

Part of Speech: Verb
Role in the Sentence: "Began" is the main verb of the sentence. It indicates the action that "they" (the subject) initiated. In this case, the action is starting the process of preparing breakfast.
"Preparing":

Part of Speech: Verb (specifically, it is a gerund)
Role in the Sentence: "Preparing" is also a verb, but it's functioning as a gerund in this sentence. A gerund is a verb form that acts as a noun. In this sentence, "preparing" is the direct object of the verb "began." It answers the question "What did they begin?" The answer is "preparing breakfast." So, "preparing" is a gerund that serves as the object of the verb "began."
In summary, both "began" and "preparing" are verbs in this sentence, but "preparing" is a gerund acting as a noun, specifically as the direct object of the verb "began."