He won’t tolerate anyone questioning his decisions.
In the above sentence, is 'questioning' a gerund (as part of the object of the verb 'tolerate')?
Or is it a participle, modifying the pronoun 'anyone'?
gerund or participle
Moderator: Josef Essberger
Re: gerund or participle
I would say a gerund. The basic sense is 'he won't tolerate questioning' rather than 'he won't tolerate anyone'.
Some traditionalists might say that a gerund should always be preceded by a possessive, e.g. 'he won't tolerate your questioning his decisions' or 'he won't tolerate John's questioning...', but when the noun/pronoun is not personal, as in this case, it's definitely OK not to use the possessive because the result sounds unnatural, i.e. 'He won't tolerate anyone's questioning his decisions.'
Some traditionalists might say that a gerund should always be preceded by a possessive, e.g. 'he won't tolerate your questioning his decisions' or 'he won't tolerate John's questioning...', but when the noun/pronoun is not personal, as in this case, it's definitely OK not to use the possessive because the result sounds unnatural, i.e. 'He won't tolerate anyone's questioning his decisions.'