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I'm always place Gerunds after the things what I want to imply. But, when I occasionally look back at my sentence, it seems odd to me; I can't explain the difference in meaning. My question is: must a Gerund be placed before or after?

There must be something going wrong.
There must be something wrong going

How does each usage change the meaning?

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  • I wonder if you meant you do this (use gerunds) with any verbs, or just going.
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 5:37
  • @Damkerng T. With any verbs or a noun another example : there must be an activity existing/ there must be an existing activity
    – user1474062
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 6:41

2 Answers 2

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This doesn't really have anything to do with the gerund/participle form; it's a matter of two different idioms using the verb go:

  1. Go wrong means to take a (figurative) wrong path: a man or woman who goes wrong becomes a criminal, a machine which goes wrong malfunctions, a situation which goes wrong has unexpected undesirable results. So if you say There must be something going wrong you mean something like "There must be some factor in this situation which is screwing things up".

Your second version should read "There must be something wrong going on". Wrong here is no part of the idiom with go—it's an adjective modifying something.

  1. Go on has a variety of meanings: to "go further", to "continue", to "talk nonsense" or "talk too much", to "occur". In the progressive it often means to "be happening", "be in progress": "There's a party going on at Joe's apartment", "What's going on, guys?". So if you say There must be something wrong going on you are expressing the opinion that "Something is happening which we won't like when we discover what it is."
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First, the main point: going is being used as an adjective modifying the noun wrong.

There must be something going wrong

This is a complete sentence. Full Stop. Without context, I would read it in a concerned, or astonished voice, but that says more about me. 

There must be something wrong going

This is a sentence fragment. There needs to be more verbiage after going to fill the reader in on what actually is going wrong.

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  • going is an adjective?
    – CowperKettle
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 2:15
  • @CK - Indeed: "going rate", "going wrong", "going south", "...any jobs going?" More British than American in usage, but an Adjective nonetheless.
    – lurker
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 4:21
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    @CopperKettle Nope.
    – user230
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 7:31

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