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'Sheltering thieving juveniles causes harm to all' Can two present participles be used sequentially

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    It's a gerund - '[The act of] sheltering'. The juveniles are doing the thieving but not the sheltering.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Feb 19, 2021 at 13:07
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    You can certainly have at least three in a row: Endorsing fining thieving juveniles could be seen as a vote-winning strategy for some politicians. And I don't see any reason why in principle we shouldn't be able to continue such "daisy-chaining" indefinitely. It might be a bit contrived, but I'm sure my example could be extended with an initial Mocking. (To mock the idea of endorsing the fining of juveniles who thieve is a concept I can get my head round! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 19, 2021 at 13:19
  • Most importantly, "sheltering" is a verb, and that's all you really need to know. Traditional grammar calls it a gerund, simply because it's head of a clause functioning as subject, a function typically performed by a noun phrase. "Thieving" is a present participle modifying "juveniles".
    – BillJ
    Commented Feb 19, 2021 at 18:39

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