Is the word "granting" in this sentence working as an adjective? Why? It kind of confuses me.

In 1924, Congress passed an act granting full citizenship to the Indians.

No, it's a verb.

Short Explanation:

- ing adjectives will usually describe a quality of a noun, like an amazing dinner. Here there's no noun for granting to describe, and granting isn't so much a quality.

Explanation:

Think of it this way. Granting and giving are synonyms. If you change the word "granting" to the word "giving", now you have:

In 1924, Congress passed an act giving full citizenship to the Indians.

That's definitely a verb, because giving is an action. You can imagine citizenship as a present that Congress gave the Native Americans. Just handed to them and said "Here you go". That's an action.

You can also ask "What action did the act do?" The act granted. That makes it easier to see as a verb. If it was an adjective, it would usually come before the word act, like - The Giving Tree. Giving describes the word tree. She likes to give. However if you switch it to The Tree Giving, giving becomes a verb, and that obviously doesn't make much sense, because we don't know what the tree is giving.