The document provides an overview of gerunds and their functions in sentences, highlighting that gerunds always end in -ing and act as nouns. It differentiates gerunds from present participles, explaining that gerunds serve as subjects or objects, while present participles function as adjectives. Additionally, it introduces a test to identify gerunds by replacing the -ing form with 'it' to see if the sentence retains its meaning.

1. Gerunds and Gerund Phrases
2006

2. 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?

3. 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!

4. 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.

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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”

9. 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….