Gerunds and Gerund Phrases

Verbals and Verbal Phrases: A Review

• Remember, when verbs do what they’re told, they are an action or a state of being…– John, a 10th grader, plays Playstation 2 until

PS3 comes out on the market.• Easy! PLAYS is our verb, right?

Verbals and Verbal Phrases: A Review

• But sometimes, verbs act like NOUNS, which as we all know, can be confusing….

• Playing Playstation 2 is something that John, a tenth grader likes.– Now….”playing” is acting like a noun– Our verb in the sentence becomes “likes”– Crazy!

Gerunds

• Gerunds always, always, always end in –ing.

• They act like nouns in a sentence.• So they can be:

– Subjects, Direct objects, Indirect Objects, and Objects of a preposition.

Gerunds

• Let’s try a few….• To swim• Swimming• To eat• Eating• To dance• Dancing

Gerunds

• Okay, now a few examples within sentences…

• Leaving one’s school during senior year is painful.

• Gerund: leaving• The result was winning the football

game with a safety in the fourth quarter.• Gerund: winning

Gerunds vs Present Participles

• A gerund ends in –ing and acts like a noun in a sentence.

• A present participle ends in –ing and acts like an adjective in a sentence

Gerunds vs Present Participles

• Francisco’s first love is swimming.– Swimming is a gerund

• Francisco’s swimming coach was eaten by a great white shark– Swimming is a

participle, it modifies “coach”

The “it” test

• One last thing….a trick if you will…try to replace –ing verbs with “it”

• If the sentence makes sense, you’ve got a gerund

• If not, it’s a present participle….