I'm not sure about this thing, but it has been tormenting me for a while. I can't really understand the grammatical structure of it was nice meeting you.
I mean, if nice in itself is an adjective, then how is it modifying meeting?
But if we remove nice, then the sentence It was meeting you doesn't make much more of the sense of what we are trying to express, instead it just forms a past continuous tense.
However, this thing it was nice meeting you holds the ground if we consider meeting as a noun i.e. a gerund. Can anyone explain to me what's actually happening over here?
Best Answer
Adjectives can take different complements : PP (preposition+gerund); 'to'-infinitive , 'gerund', or a clause.
"During the lockdown we are bored of doing nothing."
"It would be wonderful to meet you again." (Meeting didn't take place at the time of speaking.)
"It was wonderful meeting you again yesterday." (Meeting took place yesterday.)
Similarly, "Nice to meet you" is used at the very beginning of the meeting as an introductory part.
"It was nice meeting you" means the meeting already took place & it was a nice experience.