The gerund
Form and use
The
gerund has exactly the same form as the present participle:
running,
speaking, working etc. It can be used in the following ways:
(a) as
subject of a sentence: Dancing bored him.
(b) as
complement of a verb: Her hobby is painting.
(c) after
prepositions: He was accused of smuggling.
(d) after
certain verbs
(e) in noun
compounds: a 'diving board (a board for diving off). The gerund here carries
the main stress,
The gerund as subject
Either infinitive or gerund can be the subject
of a sentence when an action is being considered in a general sense. We can
say:
It is easier
to read French than to speak it or
Reading
French is easier than speaking if. The gerund, like the infinitive, can be the
subject of a clause placed after believe, consider, discover, expect, find,
think, wonder etc. After find we can omit that and the verb be, i.e. we can
say:
He found
that parking was difficult or
He found
parking difficult. But it is safer not to omit be after the other verbs. Note
the possible difference between gerund and infinitive here:
He found
parking difficult would mean that he usually/always found it difficult. He
found it difficult to park could refer to one particular occasion. It could
also mean that he always found
it
difficult, but it is more usual to express this idea by a gerund. The gerund is
used in short prohibitions:
No smoking.
No mailing. No fishing. But these cannot be followed by an object, so
prohibitions involving an object are usually expressed by an imperative:
Do not touch
these wires. Do not feed the limis. Gerunds are used in the saying Seeing is
believing.
Gerunds after prepositions
When
a verb is placed immediately after a preposition the gerund form must be used:
What can you
do besides typing?
I have no
objection to hearing your story again.
Touch your
toe without bending your knees'.
He is good
at diving. She is fond of climbing.
I'm not keen
on gambling. I'm too afraid of losing,
He was fined
for being drunk in charge of a car.
I'm against
saying anything/I'm for saying nothing.
I'm tired of
arguing. I'm fed up waiting, (colloquial)
This is a
tool for opening tins. Do you feel like going out?
After
swimming I felt cold.
She
disapproves of jogging.
What about
leaving it here and collecting it later?
He is
thinking of emigrating.
I'm sorry
for keeping you waiting.
They escaped
by sliding down a rope.
We had
difficulty in finding a parking place.
You should
be ashamed of yourself for behaving so badly.
In spite of
starting late he arrived in time.
Aren 't you
interested in making money?
There's no
point in waiting.
A number of verb +
preposition/adverb combinations ('phrasal verbs') take the gerund. The most
common of these are be for/against, care for, give up, keep on, leave off, look
forward to, put off, see about, take to.
I don't
care for standing in queues.
Eventually
the dogs left off barking.
I am looking
forward to meeting her.
He put
off making a decision till he had more information.
He took
to ringing us up in the middle of the night
No comments: