Agriculture Faculty, sophomores, 3rd semester 1

Agriculture Book 2
Lesson Six
Gerund

A gerund is a verb in its present participle form (root verb + “ing”) that acts as a noun in a
sentence. By that, we mean that the word that describes the action becomes a thing.

 Writing, studying, seeing

A gerund can be the sentence’s subject, subject complement, direct object, or the object of a
preposition.

 Subject: Changing habits is hard.

 Subject complement: My favorite sport is biking.
 Direct object: She stopped studying.
 Object of a preposition: I hope to set a new record in swimming

Form the negative by placing not before the gerund.

 Not exercising is bad for you.

 The doctor suggested not drinking coffee for a while.

Be careful!
Don’t confuse a gerund with the progressive form of the verb.

 Drinking a lot of coffee is unhealthy.

 He is drinking a lot of coffee.

Don’t confuse gerunds with adjectives ending in ing.

 I enjoy running in the park.

 I bought running shoes.
 We watched an exciting movie last night.

Spelling rules for the present participle form of verb

1. If the verb ends in a silent -e, drop the final -e and add -ing.
leave leaving
take taking

2. In one-syllable verbs, if the last three letters are a consonant-vowel-consonant

combination (CVC), double the last consonant and add -ing.

CVC
s i t sitting
pl a n planning
Agriculture Faculty, sophomores, 3rd semester 2

3. If the verb ends in -ie, change the ie to y and then add -ing.
die dying
tie tying

4. Do not double the last consonant in verbs that end in -w, -x, or -y.
sew sewing
fix fixing
play playing

Sources:

Fuchs, M., Bonner, M., & Westheimer, M. (2006). Focus on grammar 3: An integrated skills
approach (3rd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Kramer, L. (2022, April 7). What is a gerund? Gerund definition and examples [Blog post].
Retrieved from https://www.grammarly.com/blog/gerund/