República Bolivariana de Venezuela

Ministerio de educación
Vicerrectorado Académico
Universidad Yacambu

Carlos Meléndez

CI: 27.826.021

EXP-221-00106

Octubre, del 2022

What is a gerund and what is its function?
A gerund (pronounced JER-und) is a verb that’s acting as a noun.
By that, we mean that the verb—the word that describes the action
that’s happening, like “biking,” “thinking,” “running,” or “speaking”—
becomes a thing, a concept that can now be the sentence’s
subject, direct object, indirect object, or the object of a preposition. 

It doesn’t stop being a verb, but the role it plays in a sentence

shifts from describing the action to being a focal point. 

Examples
i. As a food blogger, eating is an involved production for
Shoshanna. 

ii. Fazal turned off his phone and shut the door so he could
focus on studying.

As you see in these examples, gerunds are verbs in the present

participle form. This means they’re the root verb + “ing”:

I. Seeing

II. Cramming

III. Wondering

But that’s not what makes them gerunds. To be a gerund, a

verb has to act as a noun in its sentence. Present participle verbs
are not gerunds when they describe the action in a sentence, like
the verbs in these: 
 a. She is seeing the painting for the first time. 

b. As I was walking to school, I tripped on uneven pavement. 

Gerunds aren’t the only instance where a word (or group of words)
plays a role that’s typically taken on by another type of word. For
example, an adverbial clause is a clause that functions as an
adverb. An adjective phrase is a phrase that describes a noun the
way an adjective typically does. 

Types of gerunds

1. The gerund after prepositions

The gerund must be used when a verb comes after a
preposition. This is also true of certain expressions ending
in a preposition, for example the expressions in spite
of & there's no point in.
Examples
1) Can you sneeze without opening your mouth?
2) She is good at painting.
3) She avoided him by walking on the opposite side of the
road.
4) We arrived in Madrid after driving all night.
5) My father decided against postponing his trip to Hungary.
6) There's no point in waiting.
7) In spite of missing the train, we arrived on time

2. The gerund after phrasal verbs

 Phrasal verbs are composed of a verb + preposition or
adverb.

Examples
I. When will you give up smoking?
II. She always puts off going to the dentist.
III. He kept on asking for money.
IV. Jim ended up buying a new TV after his old one broke.

There are some phrasal verbs that include the word "to" as
a preposition for example to look forward to, to take to, to be
accustomed to, to get around to, & to be used to. It is
important to recognise that the word "to" is a preposition in
these cases because it must be followed by a gerund. It is
not part of the infinitive form of the verb. You can check
whether "to" is a preposition or part of the infinitive. If you
can put the pronoun "it" after the word "to" and form a
meaningful sentence, then the word "to" is a preposition and
must be followed by a gerund.

Examples
1. I am used to it.
2. She didn't really take to studying English.
3. She didn't really take to it.
4. When will you get around to mowing the grass?

3. The gerund in compound nouns

 In compound nouns using the gerund, it is clear that the
meaning is that of a noun, not of a continuous verb. For
example, with the word "swimming pool" it is a pool for
swimming in, it is not a pool that is swimming.

Examples
A. I am giving Sally a driving lesson.
B. They have a swimming pool in their back yard.
C. I bought some new running shoes.

4. Gerund phrases
A gerund phrase is a phrase that contains a gerund and a
modifier or an object and, in some cases, both of these. 

Examples
A. Apologizing to them
B. Underground exploring
C. Running with scissors

Gerunds can also be used in conjunction with phrasal verbs,

two-word phrases that combine a verb and an adverb or
preposition to communicate a unique concept that can’t be
expressed by either of the words individually. 

What is an infinitive, and what is its

function?
 Infinitives are a form of verb that allow the word or a group
of words to be used as a noun, adjective, or adverb. Every
type of verb can be put into the infinitive form, even phrasal
verbs. 

Usually, infinitives are formed by adding the word to before

the base form of the verb, as in to be, but sometimes the
base form of the verb is used alone.
The purpose of infinitives is to discuss an action in general
instead of a specific instance of the action being done.

Examples
a. I decided not to go to London.
b. He asked me not to be late.
c. I'd like you not to sing so loudly.
d. I'd rather not eat meat.
e. I might not come.

What are the types of infinitives?

1 Full infinitives

Full infinitives, also known as to-infinitives, are the most

common infinitives in writing. You can create a full infinitive
by taking the base form of a verb and adding to in front of it.
For example, the verb be—which is often conjugated
to is, are, was, were, etc.

To show purpose or intention

Infinitives are used to explain why someone is doing
something, often replacing the phrase “in order to.” In this
case, they act as adverbs to describe the main verb. 
Examples
1. Mom left to buy milk.  

2. I’m writing this email to tell you something important.

3. Did you come to college to study or to party? 

Unlike an adverbial clause, an infinitive phrase used as an

adverb does not need an active verb.

  To modify nouns

Just like how full infinitives can add extra information about
verbs, they can also modify the meanings of nouns. In this
case, they act as adjectives and adjective phrases. 

Examples

i. We need a hero to save us. 

ii. Would you like something to drink? 
iii. It was a dumb thing to say, and I regret it. 

Phrases with most relative pronouns

Use the full infinitive in phrases that start with one of the
relative pronouns who, whom, what, where, when, and how
—but not why. 
 1. I don’t understand how to beat the Level 5 boss. 
2. Playing cards is about knowing when to hold them
and when to fold them. 
3. Here’s a list of whom to call in an emergency. 

Keep in mind that you only use full infinitives when relative
pronouns are used as phrases, but not typically when used
for questions.

How do you use an infinitive?

While we already covered the main uses for both infinitive
forms, there is some infinitive grammar that we haven’t
covered yet. Below, we explain three key areas for
understanding infinitive grammar: split infinitives, passive
infinitives, and continuous infinitives. 

Split infinitives
A split infinitive is a full infinitive that contains an adverb or
adverbial phrase between to and the base verb, such as to
hungrily eat. 
Split infinitives are a debated topic among grammatists, with
some saying they should be avoided and others saying
there’s nothing wrong with them. There’s no official answer
on whether or not they’re correct. 

In most cases, we recommend avoiding them when you can

and using them only in some scenarios. In general, you can
communicate more clearly when you keep related words
next to each other, so if you can move the adverb after the
infinitive and it still makes sense, that’s probably best.

Passive infinitives
Like other verbs, infinitives can also be written in
the passive voice. In the passive construction, the subject of
the verb becomes the receiver of the action instead of the
doer. 

For passive infinitives, instead of the base verb use the

word be + the past participle. For example, if you want to
turn to do into a passive infinitive, use to be done. You can
use passive infinitives with both full infinitives and bare
infinitives. 

Continuous infinitives
Like verbs in the continuous tense, continuous infinitives
represent an ongoing action. Instead of the base form of the
verb, continuous infinitives use the word be + the present
participle (the -ing form). For example, to make the
infinitive to do into a continuous infinitive, use to be doing. 

Just like passive infinitives, continuous infinitives can be

used for both full infinitives and bare infinitives. 

Gerunds and infinitives

 Gerunds aren’t the only kind of verb that act as nouns.
When you need to use a verb as a noun, you can also turn it
into an infinitive.

An infinitive is the word “to” + a verb’s root. There are two

ways you can use an infinitive: as a noun that
communicates a single concept and as an adjective to
describe a noun within the sentence.
Examples
 I brought us some lemonade to drink with lunch. (adjective)
 To err is human. (noun)
 I hope there are magazines to read in the waiting room.
(adjective)
 We love to travel, but we couldn’t afford it last year. (noun)

As you can see, infinitives are similar to gerunds, but they aren’t
exactly the same. In a sentence where the infinitive acts as a noun,
you can easily swap in a gerund and it will still make sense.

 We love traveling, but we couldn’t afford it last year. 

 Erring is human

But you can’t always go the other way—notably when

the gerund is the object of a preposition: “I blocked
out a few hours this Sunday for to bike.” 
You could remove the preposition in this sentence
(“for”) and it would make sense: “I blocked out a few
hours this Sunday to bike.” But if you do this, you no
longer have a prepositional phrase. 

How do you create a gerund?

As we mentioned above, you create a gerund by adding

“ing” to the end of a root verb. In other words, a gerund is in

the present participle form—but remember, a verb in the

present participle form isn’t automatically a gerund. 

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/gerund/

https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/
gerund/

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/infinitives/

https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/
infinitive/