Hello it's Ray
Today let's talk about gerunds!
Hmm~ gerunds are mysterious creatures
They resemble verbs, but they're nouns
and they even look the same as so many adjectives
What the...?
And their English name is "gerund"
Gerund?
Sounds like a virus' name
The Gerund Virus
Anyway today we're going to learn about gerunds, which are everywhere in our life
What's the definition of a gerund?
First, a gerund is a verb plus "ing"
For example, add "ing" to "swim", then we have "swimming"
This is a gerund
Teacher teacher, why does a verb become a noun after we add "ing" to it?
For example, I am swimming
Mom told me this is a progressive tense
You liar!
Uh lil Ray, don't lose control
Indeed, gerunds are sometimes mixed up with other identical words
Take your question for example
The "swimming" in "I am swimming"
is a progressive tense indeed
It's a genuine verb!
Teacher teacher, how do I know when it's a verb
when it's a noun?
They look exactly the same!
Lil Ray, it's easy
If it's a progressive tense
there must be a be verb in front as an auxiliary verb
such as "is, are, am"
So "I am swimming" is a progressive tense
Teacher, what about swimming pool?
Is it also a gerund?
Hey lil Ray you really have so many questions
but you still asked a good one
The "swimming" in "swimming pool" is neither a noun nor a verb
It‘s an
adjective
What!
All the questions above are related to the part of speech and a word's role in a sentence
Take a look at "swimming pool." "Swimming" is before "pool"
It's called a "present participle"
You don't have to understand this
But basically
It serves as an adjective to further explain the noun after it, pool
Gerunds, as the name implies, serve as "nouns" in a sentence
So basically, the positions for nouns can be filled in with gerunds
So today I'm gonna introduce
the 3 positions of a sentence you can put a gerund in
that is, the subject, the object, and the complement
First, take what Crown usually says for example
"I'm hungry" 我餓了
(Hey~ I did not!)
So here, "I" is a noun, serving as the subject of the sentence
Let's take a look at an example when a gerund serves as the subject of the sentence
The "smoking" here is the subject of the sentence
The "eating too much" here
is a gerund phrase, serving as the subject of the sentence
Then let's take a look at the object position
Take what I usually say for example
"My sister ate all the food" 我的妹妹把食物都吃光了
(Hahaha! I DID NOT!)
I’m hungry too! She always eats all the food!
The "food" here is a noun, also called the object, because in this sentence it receives the action
Next let's take a look at some examples where a gerund serves as the object of the sentence
The gerund "teaching English" here is the object of the sentence
The gerund "waking up early" is the object of the sentence
Next we have another kind of object, which is called the object of the preposition
Basically it's a noun after the preposition
Like "in this house," the "house" here is the object of the preposition
No matter how complicated its name seems
as long as it's a noun, it can be replaced by a gerund
So now let's take a look at an example where a gerund serves as the object of the preposition
Please don't roast me. I'll cry
The "making you laugh" here is the object of the preposition, at
Just kidding, you don't have to pay
The gerund "watching my videos" here is the object of the preposition, for
The last one is more difficult, nouns serving as the complement
What is a complement?
A complement further explains other words
It can be a noun or an adjective
But today we'll focus on the noun form
Here's a simple example
Ray is a...
How do we say "YouTuber" in Mandarin?
你...你管人，你管人
Ray is a "你管人"
Alright, the "YouTuber" here is a noun, serving as a complement to modify the subject in front, Ray
which means Ray is equal to a YouTuber
Since a complement can be a noun, it can also be a gerund
Here are some examples
The gerund "interacting with my fans" here is a complement
modifying the subject, "what I like as a YouTuber"
As a side note
Although there is a be verb "is" before "interacting"
it's not a progressive tense!
The "is" here is not an auxiliary verb. It's a verb
Also, "interacting" isn't a progressive action. It just means this matter
Here are some examples
(Bullsh*t XD !!!)
The gerund "eating my food" here is a complement modifying the object, Crown
She ate my food
The gerund "being with you" here is a complement modifying the adjective, happy
The above is the entire observation journal of gerunds
This creature is extremely complex!
Hope you guys have a better understanding of gerunds after watching this video
Last, I have 2 tips for you
First, basically we can put a gerund where we put a noun
namely the subject, the object, and the complement positions
Second, gerunds, progressive verb forms, present participles
sometimes look the same, so don't be mixed up
Teacher, I just fell asleep. Can you explain it again?
Watch the video one more time
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