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I think it all comes down to how open-minded and accepting your parents - or anyone else for that matter - are.

Even though I have learned English for quite a long time, I still cannot figure this one out. I will be very thankful if you could explain it and analyse its sentence structure for me.

By the way, I wonder if the word accepting here is supposed to be considered as an adjective.

If so, what is the difference between:

how your parents accept this matter

and

how accepting your parents for this matter are

Well, I have never seen this before. Help!

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  • It comes down to, that is it depends on how much your parents (or anyone else) are mentally open with respect to the matter. "Accepting" is an adjective: dictionary.com/browse/accepting
    – user5267
    Sep 30, 2016 at 7:18
  • Thanks,I didn't find it in ODE.The website you have posted here is excellent and I think I should learn English more by the internet rather than certain printed dictionaries.
    – 蔡立宇
    Sep 30, 2016 at 7:30
  • There are good online dictionaries; you may also look at: 1) oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com - 2) dictionary.cambridge.org
    – user5267
    Sep 30, 2016 at 7:54

1 Answer 1

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...how open-minded and accepting your parents ... are.

In this sentence, accepting is an active participle, which is a kind of adjective. It refers to the general attitude of your parents, rather than to any specific issue.

You can use several other acitve participles in the same way, for exampe loving, caring and accommodating. Passive participles are used much more frequently in this way, for example:

The troops are demoralized

Compare that with the verbal use of accept in the example you suggested:

how your parents accept this matter

You can see straight away that it relates to a specific issue.

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