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What is "new people" in this sentence? The sentence is:

Meeting new people is hard

Here "meeting" is a gerund/noun and the subject of the sentence, "is" is the linking verb and "hard" is the adjective but what is "new people"? Is it an adjective? Could anybody explain please?

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    A gerund is the traditional name for an -ing form employed as both a noun AND a verb; contemporary grammarians are more likely to say that the subject of the sentence is the clause meeting new people, in which new people is the direct object of meeting. – StoneyB on hiatus Oct 4 '17 at 13:57
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As StoneyB mentioned in his comment, "new people" is the direct object of the gerund "meeting." People would be the object, and new would be an adjective that describes the type of people being met. The entire phrase "meeting new people" would be considered the gerund, or more formally, a gerund phrase. The entire phrase is also the subject, not just the gerund itself. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/01/

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