Locate the gerund or gerund phrase and identify its noun function in the sentence. Going for the gold was the team's motto. Gerund or gerund phrase: Noun function:

"Going for the gold"

Explanation:

Gerund is a kind of verbal that works both like a verb and a noun.

It can function as a simple word or as a phrase. Again, phrase is the combination of words that doesn't have a subject or verb but works like a single parts of speech when used in a sentence.

Here"going for the gold"is a gerund phrase as the structure is=verb+ing

And it's a phrase because it doesn't has subject or verb. Rather it's consist of some words supporting the gerund "going"

The most important sign to recognize wether it is gerund or not is the verb following it and the verb "was" is singular.

A gerund always functions like a noun. Such as-

"Walking" is a good exercise.

Here walking has used as noun as it is a name of an exercise. as we know the name of something is considered as a noun.

"Going for the gold" was the team's motto.

In this sentence, "going for the gold"is a single task and it's also the name of the motto the team wanted to accomplish. So it's a Gerund and noun.

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