Dear Nina, Gunnar, Stephen and friends,

thanks for the informative discussion. I remember the previous
discussion too. I can't recall the exact details. But, my understanding
of the difference between Gerund in English and Pali, is as what
Stephen has given.

Allow me to give another example of the English gerund.

[meeting]
As a verb: He is meeting you.
As a gerund: I attended a meeting.

In Pali, verbs taking the endings -tvaa are called gerund or
indeclinable past participles. But, they are really neither gerunds nor
participles in the English sense. I am not sure if Absolutive is a
better name. But, these verbs are used to express an action preceding
the action of the main verb of a sentence.


metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Stephen Hodge wrote:

In the description of English, a gerund is a verbal noun (usually
ending in -ing) and a participle is a verbal adjective. Thus, in "I
like reading" the word "reading" is a gerund, while in "I am reading"
it is a participle.