Hey everyone! Welcome back to my channel! This is Dori I'm a teacher of English and today we're going to
talk about the gerund and how to use it first of all what is a gerund? The gerund is
nothing difficult really it is made from a verb let's just say we have the verb play and we add
the -ing form in the end, so we have "playing" and now it is not a verb anymore it becomes a noun. So, as a noun we can
use it either as the subject or the object of a sentence now let's see
some examples in order for you to understand better what I'm talking about
let's read these examples
this is our first example as you can see this is not a verb it is a noun it is
the subject of the sentence the action of smoking is bad for your health
ok it's not a verb anymore the gerund is the noun so let's move on to our next
example where the gerund is the object of a sentence in very simple terms very
simply put ok
So, listening is this gerund here as the object of the sentence and
now another example of the object
What is his favorite hobby? Again
hiking is his favourite hobby this is the gerund as the object of the sentence
That's it! Nothing to confuse you, right?Many students confuse gerunds with verbs especially with verbs in
present continuous because well the tense Present Continuous is formed if we take
again the verb play; it's formed by the verb "to be" and the -ing form of a verb. For example, I'm playing.
But in this case we have a verb
present continuous and we need both the verb "to be" and the -ing form of another verb (I'm playing)
but the gerund is just "playing" and really it's just a noun in the same way
it's not a verb in the same way
that things ideas and people are nouns so let's just see some examples in order for you to understand the difference
a little bit better so let's read these examples in order to understand the
differences
This is an example of the present continuous tense. "Is" the verb "to be" and "playing" the verb in -ing form
this is the verb in this example
here ... the gerund we have a gerund not a verb
a gerund as the subject of a sentence the action of playing is very important for children and
another example with the gerund as the object
is what? It's playing; again the action of playing.Pllaying here is a gerund and
not a verb as in this case in the present continuous continues form
So can you see the difference in both syntax grammar and
meaning with these examples in mind you'll never confuse them again. Also you need to remember
that some verbs are followed by specific prepositions for example let's see
As you can see in these examples we have verbs that are followed by certain prepositions. In these cases "to" and "for"
so in the same way there are verbs that are followed not by a preposition but by
a gerund. Unfortunately there are no rules for that you just learn these verbs as you use them
Of course some verbs are very very common so you learn them as a rule let me give you some examples to show you what I'm talking
about so here are some verbs that take a gerund after them
there are a lot of them but here are some of
them and let's read some examples
after the verb enjoy we have the gerund dancing
Last but not least another useful tip that I want to give you is that usually prepositions "of", "for". "about", "from"
are followed by a gerund afterwards. Let me give you some examples to show what I mean
okay now let's read some examples with these prepositions
again this doesn't mean that you will not use gerunds with other prepositions as well you
most certainly will but with these prepositions it is very common ok
Ok I hope this lessons helped you to understand gerund its form and its use a little bit better