Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
An -ing form is termed gerund when it behaves as a verb within a clause (so that it may be modified by an adverb or have an object); but the resulting clause as a whole (sometimes consisting of only one word, the gerund itself) functions as a noun within the larger sentence.
These are not gerund forms; the -um form of the gerund is used only after prepositions. The plural forms without nouns such as agenda 'things to be done' are also adjectival gerundives; the gerund has no plural form. For details of the formation and usage of the Latin gerundive, see Latin conjugation § Gerundive and Latin syntax § The gerundive.
Many of these verbs also have shortened tú imperative forms : tener → ten, contener → contén, poner → pon, disponer → dispón, venir → ven, salir → sal, hacer → haz, decir → di. However, all verbs derived from decir are regular in this form: bendice, maldice, desdícete, predice, contradice.
Note, however, that this pattern is not followed by corromper, whose participle is regular (corrompido), nor by bendecir and maldecir (bendecido and maldecido; the forms bendito and maldito are nowadays only used as adjectives or nouns, maldicho persists in Judeo-Spanish).
The gerund has a variety of uses and can mean (with haciendo, for example) "doing/while doing/by doing/because of one's doing/through doing" and so on. It is also used to form progressive constructions, such as estoy haciendo ("I am doing"). The gerund cannot be used as an adjective and generally has no corresponding adjectival forms.
A gerund is a verb form that appears in positions that are usually reserved for nouns. In English, a gerund has the same form as a progressive active participle and so ends in -ing. Gerunds typically appear as subject or object noun phrases or even as the object of a preposition:
Frequent sneezing in cats can be an indication of a bacterial, fungal, or viral infection. Usually, the sneezing will be accompanied by other symptoms when one of these is the culprit.
(The present participle and gerund forms of verbs, ending in -ing, are always regular. In English, these are used as verbs, adjectives, and nouns.) In the case of modal verbs the present and preterite forms are listed, since these are the only forms that exist with the present form identical for all persons.