Questions tagged [gerunds]
A ɢᴇʀᴜɴᴅ is a type of verb, in particular an -ɪɴɢ verb that heads a non-finite verb clause when that entire clause is being used as a noun phrase, typically as the subject or object of a finite clause. Not to be confused with -ɪɴɢ words that are no longer verbs, like deverbal nouns or participial adjectives, a gerund accepts only verb modifiers and arguments, not those of nouns or adjectives.
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When is a 'gerund' supposed to be preceded by a possessive adjective/determiner?
I assume that the following sentences are all acceptable:
He resents your being more popular than he is.
Most of the members paid their dues without my asking them.
They objected to the youngest girl’...
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When should a verb be followed by a gerund instead of an infinitive / to-infinitive?
Some verbs are followed by ing, e.g. I enjoy swimming. We can't say I enjoy to swim. Likewise, some verbs are followed by to, e.g. I decided to make a plan.
Which particular verbs are followed by ...
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"...his parents' dream of *him* achieving a Cambridge degree." What is the function of "him" here? [duplicate]
I have a problem analysing this sentence from the point of finite/nonfinite clauses, clause elements and their functions:
He does not want to destroy his parents' dream of him achieving a Cambridge ...
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How does one know when to use a gerund or an infinitive?
As a native speaker of English, the gerund version of this sentence sounds better:
infinitive:
When used together in chains,
extension methods are an unprecedented
tool to produce extremely ...
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“I like to do (be) something” vs “I like doing (being) something”
This is what I read in an answer to a previous question:
Verbs Followed by Either Gerund or Infinitive
Sometimes the meaning changes according to the verb used.
<…>
(dis)like
&...
user3286
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"Try to save" or "try saving"
Are both try to save the file and try saving the file grammatically correct? If so, is there any difference in meaning?
user19148
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What's the difference between a gerund and a participle?
What is the difference between a gerund and a participle?
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When is "L" doubled?
Some verbs can have double Ls in the gerund form; for example:
modeling; modelling
traveling; travelling
Which form should we use, or which form is used more in the literature?
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Is "running" a gerund or a participial adjective?
An enlightening experiment
Google Books yields only 39 results, and instead asks me if I wanted to say “an enlightening experience”, and eagerly shows an impressive 10,000 results when I click on ...
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Gerund ending in -ings? [duplicate]
Examples:
Savings
Shavings
Drippings
Are these gerunds?
I found some resources (below) that don't seem to provide definitive answers.
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How to use "to + V-ing"?
I saw some scenarios that used the structure "to + V-ing", such as the following:
Looking forward to hearing.
Disposed to using few words.
I would like to apply what I learned in school to helping ...
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Using Nouns or Gerunds [duplicate]
Could anyone explain when to use a noun or a gerund?
Are these sentences correct? What is the difference between usage of gerund and noun there?
I worked on the improvement of the article.
I ...
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Catenatives followed by infinitives and gerunds
What is the difference in meaning when the catenative verb “like” is followed by an infinitive, or by a gerund? For example:
Do you like ski jumping?
vs.
Do you like to ski jump?
Also, what ...
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The times they are a-changin'
I have always been intrigued by the word usage in the title of this Bob Dylan song. Wikipedia mentions that the song was influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads:
Dylan recalled writing the song as ...
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Origin of "-ing"
What is the origin of the suffix -ing used to form gerunds and present participles?
Why is the suffix the same in both cases?
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Is this sentence correct? "What I want to do is read this book."
"What I want to do is read this book."
Is it correct? Or, can I say:
"What I want to do is to read this book."
"What I want to do is reading this book."
Are all of the three sentences correct?
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"...would have trouble imagining...": Is this present participle or gerund?
Given the sentence:
Most people who live and work near Washington, DC, would have trouble
imagining dinosaurs walking around the area.
Grammatically, what would ‘imaging’ be called in this ...
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How many parts of speech can a word be at the same time?
ᴛʟᴅʀ: Is it ever possible for a sentence to have a word in it that is simultaneously more than one single part of speech in that sentence under the same parse and meaning?
(For example, a few possible ...
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Pure verbal nouns/deverbal nouns vs. gerunds
This is a follow-up to a previous question which I am still trying to understand. I think I'm making progress in my understanding, but I would appreciate feedback to help me refine my thinking. Here ...
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"Started to work" vs "Started working"
What is the difference between the following:
Things started to work again.
Things started working again.
user17857
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progressive forms: participle or gerund?
Progressive forms of verbs consist of the form to be + participle. At least that is what most English grammars say or they are imprecise and speak of the -ing form. My question is what follows after ...
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The choice between the gerund and the infinitive in a certain construction
I am pretty much sure that for native speakers the issue I am going to bring up might look as an uncalled question as they can easily figure out which form of a verbal part of speech should be used, ...
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When does a gerund become a verb?
My question is a follow-up to one in which I identified stealing and killing in a particular sentence as gerunds. Bill J commented to the effect that if objects followed these gerunds, the latter ...
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-ing vs -in' ending
I wonder if the "g" in the -ing forms is pronounced. When I hear it it seems as if it's not pronounced sometimes or just slightly, though sometimes I've been told that I should pronounce &...
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Singular vs. Plural with Multiple Gerunds as Subject (IE: [Gerund] and [Gerund] are/is [something].)
I'm trying to find out whether I should use a singular or plural verb when there are multiple gerunds as the subject of the sentence.
For example:
Running the correct course and keeping a steady pace ...
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Do the -ing and to-infinitive "verbs" that follow catenative verbs always take the grammatical function of "noun"?
I'm wondering whether or not the verb form that follows a catenative verb has the grammatical function of a noun or of a verb, and whether or not it depends on the first catenative verb.
"I like to ...
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An article before gerunds
I wonder how to distinguish words with a verb base and the -ing suffix. I have found that they fall into the following 3 classes:
1) gerundial noun (he had witnessed the killing of the birds),
2) ...
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How to remember the difference between: "Can you try to open" and "Can you try opening"?
I am well aware that a similar question has been asked in the past, namely “Try to save” or “try saving”. However, I am not totally satisfied by the posted answers. My problem is that, every time I ...
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Verbs vs. gerunds vs. something else?
Given the following sentences:
I have even started using them in normal writing.
People can understand your writing better.
Are using and writing gerunds, verbs, or some other part of ...
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"Feel committed to [gerund/infinitive]"
Does "feel committed to" require an infinitive or gerund complement?
For example, which of the following is grammatical?
I feel committed to following up on that.
I feel committed to follow ...
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Grammatical complements for "allow"
Are any of these verb phrases grammatical?
allows the user of modeling and resolving
allows the user to model and resolve
Which version of the following sentence is correct/better?
...
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What is a gerund? A noun or a verb? 'His smoking upset me’
I've been studying the Huddleston and Pullum book for four months now. So far only one thing confuses me: the identity of gerund. Is it a noun or a verb?
His constant smoking upset me. smoking ...
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When can the -ing form of a verb be placed before a noun?
My native-speaker's grammatical intuition tells me that:
There is a sleeping man under the tree.
is fine but
There is a fishing man by the river bank.
is wrong. Why?
Both
There is a man sleeping ...
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Is "to practice volleyball requires stamina" grammatical?
Is the sentence "to practice volleyball requires stamina" grammatically correct? As opposed to the sentence "practicing volleyball requires stamina"?
Another example:
To ensure safety requires ...
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When to use a gerund or an infinitive after "is"?
How does one know when to use a gerund or an infinitive? states a 90% rule, but I'm more interested in the remaining 10%.
This British Council page states
Sorry, there isn’t a rule. You have to learn ...
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'The X-ing of Y' vs just 'X-ing Y' : why are both 'the' and 'of' necessary together?
Take the example of
There is very little that a conforming POSIX.1 application can do by catching, ignoring or masking SIGSYS
(From the SIGSYS article)
This can be rewritten as
There is very ...
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Expect +to VS expect + ing
I know that expect is used this way:
I expect you to do that.
But I have also seen examples like with verb in its "ing" form:
What to expect working at...
I will expect you doing (does ...
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Is "programming" not a noun?
Recently, I was told that the word "programming" in the phrase "programming thoughts" is a verb in the gerund-participle form and that the term "gerund" by itself is obsolete in modern grammar. I was ...
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When must a gerund be preceded by a possessive pronoun as opposed to an accusative one?
I was recently reading this very interesting post here:
When is a gerund supposed to be preceded by a possessive adjective/determiner?
In this thread, it is argued persuasively that we could use ...
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"I hate Jill singing those songs." = "I hate Jill when she is singing those songs."?
Can the sentence
I hate Jill singing those songs.
mean
I hate Jill when she is singing those songs.
Or does it mean something else?
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Subject of gerund phrase [duplicate]
Me getting a hangover is nothing like her getting a hangover.
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I'd rather contemplate you singing than him singing.
Is this grammatically correct?
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What is difference between "using" and "by using"?
Sometimes both "using" and "by using" seem to have the same meaning. Am I wrong? For example, compare the sentences below:
"On-screen keyboards allow people with mobility impairments to type data ...
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Beginning a sentence with a gerund?
My teacher recently marked on my paper not to use a gerund to start a sentence. I have been told by teachers in the past to use that format to vary sentence structure. It seems to make the paper flow ...
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Help identifying an error type "tried to help me learning"
I have a friend from Russia who is trying to learn English and recently used the sentence "He tried to help me learning..." (implied: the English language)
It is obviously wrong and I corrected it ...
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Cooking apples and cleaning ladies
Consider the following sentences:
Cooking is my favourite activity.
Cooking apples are essential for this recipe.
Cooking functions in the first sentence as a gerund. How does it function in the ...
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hyphen in noun-gerund compounds
I am lost with the rule that noun-gerund compounds do not get a hyphen if used as nouns.
Example: He liked novel reading.
Is it correct not to use a hyphen between novel and reading here?
I ...
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How do I know when a verb should be followed by a gerund or an infinitive?
A few weeks ago I posted a question about the usage of a verbal in a particular sentence. But now, I have another question on the same topic, gerund.
Sometimes I don't know for sure if I need to use ...
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Are these parts of speech correct? [closed]
Considering the following sentences:
Don't listen to those other people.
You should always use prefixes with your table names.
I have even started using them in normal writing.
See how ...
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"It is fun to write letters" vs. "It is fun writing letters"
Grammatically, "It is fun to write English letters." is correct. But is the following also grammatically correct?
It is fun writing English letters.
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Usage of the gerund preceded by the possessive adjective/determiner?
I read this thread on the usage of the gerund preceded by the possessive adjective/determiner with much interest.
I have another question about the usage of the gerund preceded by the possessive ...
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