Learn English – Noun or non-finite subordinate clause

clausesgerundsgrammar

Consider the following sentence:

The government wants to encourage understanding of science.

Now, "to encourage understanding of science" is a non-finite subordinate clause functioning as an object. What about "understanding of science"? Is that also a non-finite clause? Or is "understanding" considered to be a noun?

Learning is an easy process for some.

Here, is "learning" a noun or a non-finite subordinate clause functioning as the subject of the whole clause?

I'm inclined to say that "understanding" is a noun, whereas "learning" is a non-finite clause. However, I don't know what this intuition is based on.

Best Answer

In your examples, understanding and learning are both nouns. Understanding is the object of the verb encourage and it is post-modified by the prepositional phrase of science. Learning is the subject of the verb is.

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