usage of "understanding"..?

Question

Hi,
I dont understand the usage of "understanding". I want to be able to say that she/she is very understanding as in he/she can understand your feelings,empathize etc, but is the stmt correct?:
[1] "he is very understanding".
I know that the stmt: "he is very understandable" is obviously incorrect though.
To me this usage conflicts with the usage:[2] "I had a hard time 'understanding' how the system worked".

First pl, let me know if [1] is correct.
Then to help me gain insight, pl let me know the difference in way 'understanding' is being used in [1] and [2].

Thanks

This makes me to think, why I had a hard time understanding the usage of 'understanding' as an adjective. May be psychologically I always associated "ing" with verb. This also makes me think, what other "ing" adjectives do I know..
I can think of loving,caring!!
Would sbdy like to add to the list?
Thanks

Answer 1

-ing added to a verb can create a participle, a gerrund, or a progressive verb

Tony jumps (present tense verb)
Tony is jumping (present tense progressive verb)
Tony likes cake (cake is direct object)
Tony likes jumping (jumping is a gerrund i.e. a verbal noun)
Jumping frogs are more fun than hopping frogs (jumping is a particple i.e. an adjective used to describe the frogs)

In your sentence "he is very understanding", the word "understanding" is a present participle describing "He".

In your second sentence "I had a hard time understanding", the word "understanding" is a gerrund. Also in that sentence is the idiom "to have a hard time", which means "to do with difficulty". This is always followed by a gerrund

The short answer is that understanding is used like an adjective in the first sentence and like a noun in the second

the verb in the second sentence is "to have". When you write your sentences, try to place noun and verb as close together as possible, then follow with your relative clauses etc.
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just about every verb can be changed to a present participle by adding -ing to the end.

It is very good to use a participle to describe something when you want to emphasize an action or movement.

"In the approaching hours of the morning, the hulking workers pressed into a line outside the mining camp." This sentence is full of verbs
The morning is approaching
The people will be working
The workers are hulking
The workers are pressing
The will mine inside the camp
Instead of a photograph, the sentence reads more like a movie. Often in these cases, the author will cause the reader to imagine details that he or she did not mention.

Answer 2

"Understanding" can be an adjective, which is the usage in 1, and is correct.

It can also be a verb, which is usage 2, and is also correct.

It can further be a noun, as in "We have an understanding" as in "we agree", except that the connotation of using "understanding" is that one of the parties to the "understanding" probably doesn't like it very much.

Answer 3

In sentence #1, the word "understanding" is an adjective, used to mean he is empathetic, as you said. You used it correctly in the sentence.

In sentence # 2, "understanding" is used as a verb. It means able to be understood or comprehended.

It's just another example of why English is a difficult language to learn. It has many uses that are not understandable! LOL

Hope that helps!