Meaning of 崩れかける


I'm having some difficulties understanding the construction `崩れかけた` in

> 博士たちは崩れかけた門をくぐり、中へ入っていった。

I couldn't find it as a single word, so I take it is constructed from `崩れる`
and `かける`. My guess is that it's the stem form of `崩れる` joined with `かける`
(equivalent to the て form to join to verbs), but I'm not sure.

`崩れる` means something like collapsed so I was thinking it referred to a
collapsed gate. I don't know what `かける` adds to this though...

Can someone shine some light on this?




かける can be used as an subsidiary verb to mean "start to [verb]", so 崩れかけた is
indeed the 連用形 _ren'yōkei_ ( _masu_ -stem) of 崩れる followed by かけた.

崩れかけた門 means "a gate, which has started to break down / deteriorate". Of
course you would usually translate this more directly, maybe (for lack of a
better word) "deteriorating / wrecked gate".

See for example

  * [When is <verb stem>+かける's meaning to start and leave unfinished?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/69182/1628)
  * [Correct use of かけて](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/38193/1628)




かける can be used as an subsidiary verb to mean "start to [verb]", so 崩れかけた is
indeed the 連用形 _ren'yōkei_ ( _masu_ -stem) of 崩れる followed by かけた.

崩れかけた門 means "a gate, which has started to break down / deteriorate". Of
course you would usually translate this more directly, maybe (for lack of a
better word) "deteriorating / wrecked gate".

See for example

  * [When is <verb stem>+かける's meaning to start and leave unfinished?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/69182/1628)
  * [Correct use of かけて](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/38193/1628)

