Learn English – Difference between Functional and Functioning

word-choice

What shall I use in this sentence? functional or functioning?
" The train that goes from my house to the university is ____, so I won't have any difficulty in going to the university today".
And please explain the reason for your answer.

Best Answer

Well, I don't know what you are getting at, but the sentence by itself doesn't make any sense. For one, "routes" are not machines and don't get old or stop functioning overtime, specially in today's world. Even if they do, the word "still" makes the sentence non-standard. Coming back to whether "functioning" or "functional" is correct, they both could be correct in a proper context. If it were a machine, I could say:

My threshing machine is still functioning, so I won't need to take my grass to someone else's machine for threshing.

The AC unit seems to be functional. It's working in the usual way, no need to worry about it.