Gerunds

What are Gerunds?

Although the term might sound foreign, the gerund is a common part of speech that most of
us use every day, whether we know it or not. Here, we’ll take an in-depth look at gerunds
and provide you with several examples of gerunds so you’ll feel comfortable using them in
your writing, and so that you will be able to recognize them when you see them.

Gerunds: The Basics

Gerunds are words that are formed with verbs but act as nouns. They’re very easy to spot,
since every gerund is a verb with ing tacked to its tail. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Like all things grammar, gerunds do take a tiny bit of detective work to spot. The problem
here is that present participles also end with the letters ing. Besides being able to spot
gerunds, you should be able to tell the difference between a gerund and a present participle.

Let’s go back to the definition of a gerund for a moment. Remember that gerunds are words
that are formed with verbs but act as nouns. Present participles do not act as nouns. Instead,
they act as modifiers or complete progressive verbs. To find gerunds in sentences, just look
for a verb + ing that is used as a noun. It’s that simple.

Examples of Gerunds
As you read these examples of gerunds, notice the verbs they contain, and notice that every
single one of them ends in ing. By the end of this quick lesson, you’ll have no problem
recognizing gerunds when you see them.

1. Swimming in the ocean has been Sharon’s passion since she was five years old.
2. The ballerina taught us dancing.
3. Apologizing to me isn’t enough this time.
4. She is afraid of flying.
5. They are capable of doing hard work.

Grammar recap: Intro to gerunds and

infinitives
As students become more proficient in English, they inevitably begin focusing on some of
the trickier aspects of the language. One of those is gerunds and infinitives. Their use is
completely natural for native speakers, but require a bit of breaking down in class. Here are
some pointers to over with your students.
Part One: A quick recap

1. What’s a gerund?

A gerund is the noun form of a verb that ends in -ing. For example, playing, dancing,
eating. Right away this is confusing for students, as they are used to seeing that form as the
continuous/progressive form of the verb (“she is eating”, “they were dancing”). However,
a gerund is a noun, and is the subject or object of the sentence. Examples are “Cooking is
my favorite hobby” (subject), or “I hate studying” (object).

2. What’s an infinitive?

An infinitive is to + verb base form. For example, to play, to dance, to eat. Some people
call the whole infinitive the base form, but I think it’s easier for students to think of
infinitives as the two parts that they are, to + base form, and stress that they need both of
these parts to form the complete infinitive. This is different from Latin-based languages,
where the infinitive is just one word. Like gerunds, infinitives can also be the subject or
object of a sentence.

All verbs (except for modals) have both a gerund and an infinitive form; the trick is
deciding which form we need. Here, I’m focusing more on gerunds and infinitives as
objects rather than subjects, though I will briefly say that, generally speaking, subjects take
the gerund form. When we use the infinitive as a subject, it usually sounds very formal or
very emphatic, e.g. “To dance is to live” or “To complete your thesis is your number one
priority.” However, this is much less common than just using the gerund as the subject
(”Completing your thesis should be your focus right now.”)

3. How to use gerunds as objects

Here’s another fun rule that has no exceptions (well, it except for modal verbs, but modal
verbs are their own special exception!).

Whenever there are two verbs together, one right after the other, the second verb must be in
either the gerund form or the infinitive form. This is something that A2, B1, and sometimes
even higher level students have a difficult time with, especially those who speak Latin
languages.

What I mean is, we can never say “She wanted go” or “They like run.” The second verb has
to change, and the first verb dictates what form the second verb will be. To make these
sentences correct, we have to say “She wanted to go” or “They like running” or “They like
to run.” But why? And why can’t we say, “She wanted going”?

The simplest answer is, because there are certain rules we have to follow. So let’s take a
look at some of the clear-cut rules when it comes to gerunds and infinitives.

Part Two: Key rules*

*For all of these rules, if students ask you why, unfortunately, the answer is just that these
are the rules—there’s no reason, this is just how the grammar is, whether we like it or not!

Rule #1: Some verbs must be followed by gerunds

I always start with the verb enjoy, because it’s perhaps one they are most familiar with. We
must say “He enjoys drinking coffee”; we can never say “He enjoys to drink coffee.”

Other verbs in this category include:

 Discuss
 Anticipate
 Despise
 Consider
 Deny

Rule #2: Some verbs must be followed by infinitives

I like to start with want and need because they may be the most common. “She needed to
sell her house”—we cannot say “She needed selling her house.” Another example, “You
wanted to change your class”; “You wanted changing your class” is incorrect.

Other verbs in this category include:

 Agree
 Ask
 Decide
 Expect
 Plan

Rule #3: Some verbs can be followed by both gerunds and infinitives with no change
in meaning

Students may already be familiar with these three: Like, Love, Hate. This is the easiest
category, because it really doesn’t matter, the meaning is exactly equal between “I hate
cleaning” and “I hate to clean.”

Other verbs in this category include:

 Prefer
 Continue
 Begin

Rule #4: Some verbs can be followed by both gerunds and infinitives but the meaning
changes
This is the trickiest rule, and likely the one that will require the most explaining as well as
the most practice. I find that lots of examples are helpful, and encourage the students to
create their own examples as well. The plus side, though, is that there are very few words
on this list, and we’ll just look at the main five.

Verb

Example sentence with a gerund

Meaning

Example sentence with an infinitive

Meaning

Stop

He stopped smoking.

He smoked for a time but then he quit.

He stopped to smoke.

He took a break from something else he was doing to have a cigarette (e.g. He stopped
walking in order to smoke).

Try

We tried opening the door, but it still wouldn’t budge.

We probably tried other options as well, this is just one of the options.

We tried to open the door, but we couldn’t.