For a beginner, Gerunds can be very confusing. In a sense, gerunds are what the English language is all about- placement and usage. Do not fear Gerunds, read on to get a clearer idea of what gerunds are and how to identify them.
Gerunds are verbals that look like verbs but function like nouns: they name an object, a person or a thing. For e.g.
Look closely at the word ‘hunting’, does it describe the action or is it naming the activity? The word is assigning a name to the activity; hence it is a Gerund.
Here is a checklist for gerunds:
- It is a verb+ing.
- It functions as a noun.
- It can be a subject, a direct object or an object of a preposition.
Let us look at examples of different ways in which gerund is used.
1.The most common usage is gerund as a subject, for example:
The word ‘smoking’ is the subject of the sentence as it names the habit and ‘is’ is the verb. Let us look at another example of gerund as a subject:
‘Racing’ is the subject and is clearly a noun.
2. A gerund can also be the direct object of a sentence, which means it is a receiver of the action performed by the subject. To find what the direct object in a sentence is ask- ‘what?’ or ‘why?’ to the subject. For e.g.
The word ‘love’ is a verb as it describes an action, what do I love? Reading.
‘Enjoys’ is a verb. What does Meena enjoy? Playing. The sentence can also contain modifiers (extra information) like ‘playing board games’ or ‘playing chess’. The gerund will still be ‘playing’.
3. Gerunds are also objects of preposition. For e.g.
‘Stays’ is the verb, ‘by’ is a preposition and ‘running’ is an activity/sport, hence it is a gerund. A few more examples are:
Do it yourself:
Read the sentences given below and try to guess whether the gerund functions as a subject, a direct object or as an object of a preposition.
- Peter prefers getting up early.
- Sleeping does not burn calories.
- Vlad is playing on the team.
- The tutor appreciated my efforts at trying to solve a math problem.
- I manage my work by working 40 hours a week.
