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. For example, consider the sentence "Eating this cake is easy."
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:
A neuter form without a noun may function as an impersonal expression, for example: addendum 'something to be added'; referendum 'something to be referred back'. These are not gerund forms; the -um form of the gerund is used only after prepositions.
Many uses of gerunds are thus similar to noun uses of the infinitive. Uses of gerunds and gerund phrases are illustrated below: As subject or predicative expression: Solving problems is satisfying. My favorite activity is spotting butterflies. As object of certain verbs that admit such constructions: I like solving problems. We tried restarting ...
In some situations, the distinction between gerund/participle uses and deverbal uses may be lost, particularly when the -ing word appears on its own. For example, in "I like swimming", it is not clear whether swimming is intended as a gerund (as it would be in "I like swimming fast"), or as a pure noun (as in "I like competitive swimming ...
An example of a verbal noun in English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The sacking of the city was an epochal event" (wherein sacking is a gerund form of the verb sack). A verbal noun, as a type of nonfinite verb form, is a term that some grammarians still use when referring to gerunds, gerundives, supines, and nominal forms of infinitives.
For example, clauses can be questions, [2]: 161 but questions are not propositions. [3] A syntactic description of an English clause is that it is a subject and a verb . [ 4 ] But this too fails, as a clause need not have a subject, as with the imperative, [ 2 ] : 170 and, in many theories, an English clause may be verbless.
Some examples: He is the man to beat. (infinitival clause with zero object; the man is understood as the object) That car wants looking at straight away. (gerund-participial clause with zero preposition complement after at) The building was given a new lease of life. (past-participial clause with zero indirect object)