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| What is a Gerund? |
Due to the numerous questions I got on this, I decided to
write this article. The first thing you should know is that both gerund and
present participle are verbs. They are the -ing/continuous form of a verb, e.g.
walking, running etc. However, not all 'ing' verbs are gerunds.
What is a Present
Participle?
A present participle is an 'ing' verb that functions as a verb or
as an adjective. In other words, when an 'ing' verb functions as either a verb
or an adjective, it is called a present participle.
Examples:
o She
is teaching the students the genres of literature.
o Could
you please tell me about your teaching experience.
In sentence one, the 'ing' verb, 'teaching' is functioning as a
verb whereas in sentence two, it is functioning as an adjective(that is, it is
qualifying the noun, 'experience'). Therefore, 'teaching' can be called a
present participle in both sentence one and two.
What is a gerund?
On the other hand, a gerund is an 'ing' verb functioning as a noun
in a given sentence.
Example:
· Teaching is
a good profession.
In the above sentence, 'teaching' is functioning as a noun, so it
is a gerund.
Another 'ing' verb that can function as a verb, an adjective and a
noun is 'running.'
Examples:
I am running to my house. (verb)
The running water is not clean.(adj)
Running can be tiring at times.(noun)
In sentence one and two, 'running' is a present participle because
it is functioning as a verb and an adjective respectively.
In sentence three, 'running' is a gerund because it is functioning
as a noun in the sentence.
Other examples of 'ing' verbs that can be classified as present
participle and gerund are: walking, praying, standing etc.
In sum, a gerund is an 'ing' verb that functions as a noun whereas
a present participle is an 'ing' verb that either functions as a verb or an
adjective. It is also important to note that whereas all 'ing' verbs can be
present participle, not all 'ing' verbs can be gerund.
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