Microsoft® Manual of Style, Fourth Edition

Words ending in -ing

A word ending in –ing that looks like a verb but that is not being used as a verb can be ambiguous because such a word can be a gerund, an adjective, or a noun. If the syntax of the sentence doesn’t make clear how the word is being used, non-native English speakers, localization, and machine translation may have difficulty disambiguating the word. Consider the following heading:

Meeting requirements

Will the text under this heading discuss “how to meet requirements”? Or will it discuss “requirements for a meeting”?

A gerund is an –ing word that functions as a noun but that expresses a verbal action or process. If meeting in this example heading means “the act or process of meeting a set of requirements,” then meeting would be ...