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Nouns: What Are Gerunds? (With Examples)

A gerund is a noun formed from a verb by adding "-ing". Gerunds can take direct objects like verbs. Examples of gerunds include "swimming", "running", and "drinking". Gerunds can serve different grammatical functions like subject, direct object, object of a preposition. A gerund phrase includes a gerund, its object, and modifiers. Present participles also end in "-ing" but are not used as nouns like gerunds. They are used as adjectives or to form progressive verb tenses.

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79 views4 pages

Nouns: What Are Gerunds? (With Examples)

A gerund is a noun formed from a verb by adding "-ing". Gerunds can take direct objects like verbs. Examples of gerunds include "swimming", "running", and "drinking". Gerunds can serve different grammatical functions like subject, direct object, object of a preposition. A gerund phrase includes a gerund, its object, and modifiers. Present participles also end in "-ing" but are not used as nouns like gerunds. They are used as adjectives or to form progressive verb tenses.

Uploaded by

Felipe Lintz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Nouns

A noun is a word for a person, place, or thing. (You might like to think of nouns as naming
words.)
Everything we can see or talk about is represented by a word which names it. That "naming
word" is called a noun.
Sometimes a noun will be the name for something we can touch (e.g., lion, cake, computer),
and sometimes a noun will be the name for something we cannot touch (e.g., bravery, mile,
joy).
Everything is represented by a word that lets us talk about it. This includes people (e.g., man,
scientist), animals (e.g., dog, lizard), places (e.g., town, street), objects (e.g., vase, pencil),
substances (e.g., copper, glass), qualities (e.g., heroism, sorrow), actions (e.g., swimming,
dancing), and measures (e.g., inch, ounce).

_______________________________________________________________

What Are Gerunds? (with Examples)


A gerund is a noun formed from a verb. All gerunds end -ing. For example:

swimming

running

drinking
Even though a gerund is a noun, a gerund can still take a direct object (like a verb). This is
known as a gerund complement. For example:

swimming the lake

running a mile

drinking a beer
More Examples of Gerunds

Below are some more examples of gerunds (shaded) with their roles as nouns explained:

Acting is fun.
(Gerund as the subject of a sentence)

Playing football is fun.


(Here, football is the gerund complement of the gerund playing.)

Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing. (Sir Ralph
Richardson, 1902-1983)
(Acting is a gerund as a subject. The gerunds keeping and coughing are objects of
prepositions.)
(In this example, a large group of people is the gerund complement ofkeeping.)
o

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.
(Kahlil Gibran, 1883-1931)
(Two gerunds, both subject complements)

I love acting. It is so much more real than life. (Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900)
(A gerund as the direct object of the verb love)

You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eatingjellybeans.
(Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004)
(A gerund as the object of a preposition)

I like to play blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling, I'm addicted tositting in
a semi-circle. (Mitch Hedberg, 1968-2005)
(Two gerunds, both objects of prepositions)

Gerund Phrases
A gerund will often appear in a gerund phrase. A gerund phrase consists of a gerund,
its object, and all modifiers. For example (gerund phrase shaded):
o

Picking rotten apples from the floor is a great way to get stung by a wasp.

All Gerunds End -ing but So Do Present Participles

Even though all gerunds end with the suffix -ing, not every word which ends -ing is a
gerund. The other common type of word which ends -ing is the present participle. Like
gerunds, present participles are also formed from verbs (making them verbals), but they are
not used as nouns. They are used as adjectives or when forming verbs in a progressive
tense. For example:
Running the tap will clear the air pocket.

(This is a gerund.)
Can you fix the running tap?

(This is a present participle as an adjective.)


The tap was running for an hour.

(This is a present participle used to form the past progressive tense.)


OTHER EXPLANATION:
We use gerunds (verb + ing):

After certain verbs - I enjoy singing

After prepositions - I drank a cup of coffee before leaving

As the subject or object of a sentence - Swimming is good exercise

We use 'to' + infinitive:

After certain verbs - We decided to leave

After many adjectives - It's difficult to get up early

To show purpose - I came to London to study English

We use the bare infinitive (the infinitive without 'to'):

After modal verbs - I can meet you at six o'clock

After 'let', 'make' and (sometimes) 'help' - The teacher let us leave early

After some verbs of perception (see, watch, hear, notice, feel, sense) - I
watched her walk away

After expressions with 'why' - why go out the night before an exam?

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