English Question

[seymour]

This is going to seem pretty stupid, probably because it is, but does anybody know what is the gerund form or present participle of the word "mechanic?"

My friends and I have been debating this for some time and I wondered if anyone else out there might have an opinion. I prefer to spell "mechanicing" but I have a friend who thinks it is not a word, since I can't produce a dictionary containing it, and because its not a word chooses to spell it mechanicking, which seems poor form to me.

Is it a word? It seems like it should be. If it is, how is it spelled? I'd really like to settle this argument, as long as its settled in my favor.

[Slumberer]

Well, "mechanic" is a noun so it doesn't have a participle.
A mechanic works with mechanical items.
He doesn't mechanic.
In the same way that an aardvark doesn't aardvark, a human doesn't human and a pencil doesn't pencil.
Some nouns do create a verb form though not neccessarily being the subject of the verb themselves.
A Hoover might hoover, and a drill might drill, but a fish doesn't fish. (Ignoring the angler fish, naturally).

[sharkie17]

im not an english major or anything but "mechanicing" or "mechanicking" seems to be a non word...

some words seems to have gerund form such as

doctor and doctoring...

nurse and nursing...

but, some words... it just doesnt make any sense...

dentist, pharmacist, technicians.... wont work with them...

[Rogue230]

Yep. A gerund is a verb form and "mechanic" isn't a verb.

[bernard]

The form nursing comes from the verb nurse, not the noun. Same with doctor... I think.
Dentist on the other hand, is not a verb. Neither is pharmacist.
Mechanizing would be pretty good, but it means like to apply machines to something, to mechanize something. It's the best i can think of...

[Monstrobolaxa]

The form nursing comes from the verb nurse, not the noun.

No body said it did come from the noun!

[Steven]

Under the slogan "F1technical.net is good for you", we will one day all be able to speak decent english

[bernard]

The form nursing comes from the verb nurse, not the noun.

No body said it did come from the noun!

I agree, no body said so, but sharkie wondered in his post why nurse has a gerund form; nursing, whereas, say, dentist doesn't. That is because nurse is a noun, so is dentist, but the gerund comes from the verb "to nurse".

[geniehelpme]

That's right. A "ing" word is an action word structure and "technician" isn't an action word.
https://medium.com/@geniehelpme/best-cd ... 27c5b292e6

[Stu]

But if the plural for goose is geese, why isn’t a lone sheep a shoop?

[Edax]

But if the plural for goose is geese, why isn’t a lone sheep a shoop?

And why aren’t we talking about a herd of meese?

[the EDGE]

Mechanicing

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... echanicing

I fail to see why your friend would add a K

[Just_a_fan]

But if the plural for goose is geese, why isn’t a lone sheep a shoop?

It's an aberration that goes back Old English i.e. it predates the Norman alteration of the language. Deer is also the singular and plural, as is swine for the same reason. You can have a swine and many swine, for example, just as the is a deer and there are deer.

[Big Tea]

But if the plural for goose is geese, why isn’t a lone sheep a shoop?

It's an aberration that goes back Old English i.e. it predates the Norman alteration of the language. Deer is also the singular and plural, as is swine for the same reason. You can have a swine and many swine, for example, just as the is a deer and there are deer.

There is a vid here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rhxeDInKu8&t=151s

It mostly depends on which version of French Latin or English (old british) it comes from (skip first 2 min)

[TimW]

Well, "mechanic" is a noun so it doesn't have a participle.
A mechanic works with mechanical items.
He doesn't mechanic.
In the same way that an aardvark doesn't aardvark, a human doesn't human and a pencil doesn't pencil.
Some nouns do create a verb form though not neccessarily being the subject of the verb themselves.
A Hoover might hoover, and a drill might drill, but a fish doesn't fish. (Ignoring the angler fish, naturally).

A mechanic mechanizes.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dicti ... /mechanize

(So it is mechanizing)