The following excerpt fromAnalyzing English Grammargives an example of a "borderline case" where a term could either be considered a gerund or participle in two different contexts that are only slightly different. "How do linguists decide unusual or borderline cases? They test difficult examples aga...
Examples: Present participle vs. gerund Cryingis a cathartic way to release negative emotions. I had to help acryinggirl who had lost her mother. Shehad beencryingfor a little while. Gerund form The gerund form of a verb, like the present participle, is formed by adding “-ing” to the...
gerund phrases behave likenoun phrases. In practice, this means that gerunds and gerund phrases can be the subject of sentences/clauses or be the subject complement connected to the subject by anauxiliary verb(helping verb). Let’s look at examples of each of these ideas: ...
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. Gerund examples Gerunds are incredibly versatile. Here a...
These ing words, on the other hand, are examples of present participles: One day last summer, Francisco and his coach were swimming at Daytona Beach. Swimming = present participle completing the past progressive verb were swimming. A great white shark ate Francisco's swimming coach. Swimming =...
Gerund (Noun): Running (Run + n + ing) The gerund can be used as the subject,complement4, or object of a sentence. Let’s take a look at what that means using the examples below: Running Running is good for your health. (Subject) ...
Verbals: Definition & Examples English includes words that look and sound like verbs but are not serving a sentence as such. You likely hear them often: You said you like skydiving? What about cliff jumping? The door was closed, so I couldn't hear them—their voices were muffled. Alexande...
Examples One of his dutiesis attendingmeetings. The hardest thing about learning Englishis understandingthe gerund. One of life's pleasuresis havingbreakfast in bed. The gerund after prepositions The gerund must be used when a verb comes after a preposition. This is also true of certain expressio...
2. Examples of Gerund Phrases Example 1 Running for presidentis a serious ambition. This gerund phrase is the subject of the sentence; it is what the sentence is about. Example 2 Eating small mealsthroughout the day can help you avoid hunger pains. ...
Examples of perfect form of present participles (no perfect form of past participles): o Having said his piece, the man departed. o Having seen the results, Bob vowed never to cook again. o Having felt and earthquake, we moved to another state. ...