secound edition:

What Are Gerunds?

Gerunds are words that look like verbs and act like nouns.

You can spot them because they will always be a verb + ing acting as a noun.

(Words that are made of verbs but don't act like verbs are called verbals. There are two other types of verbals: participles and infinitives.)

Example:

Swimming is fun.

The word swim is a verb. Swimming is a verb with an -ing ending acting as a noun (the subject of this sentence).

Phrases

These consist of a gerund and the words that modify and complement it.

Example:

Swimming in the pool is fun.

Gerund	Phrase
Running is my favorite activity.	Running marathons is my favorite activity.
I love listening.	I love listening to my favorite band.
Reading rocks!	Reading books on the porch rocks!

Their Modifiers and Complements

Remember what these act as? NOUNS, right?

Let's look at that example of the phrase from above.

Example:

Swimming in the pool is fun.

Now, you may have noticed that in the pool is an adverbial prepositional phrase. It is telling us where the swimming happened.

But, nouns can only be modified with adjectives, right?

Well, remember how we talked about a gerund being a verb form acting as a noun?

Even though it's an official noun, it still carries some of the attributes of a verb.

The verb part allows it to take adverbial modifiers just like any other verb- even though it's acting as a noun. (By the way, it can still take adjectival modifiers - just like other nouns.)

They can even take complements (like direct objects), just like verbs can.

And, this one is kind of strange, they can sort of take subjects.

Only the subjects will never be in the subject case (he, she, I). They will always be possessive (his, her, my).

In a Sentence	Acting As...	Its Complement/Modifier
Diagramming sentences is fun!	Subject	Sentences is the direct object ofdiagramming.
I love listening to my favorite band.	Direct Object	To my favorite band is a prepositional phrase modifying *listening*.
Amir's loud eatingreally bothers me!	Subject	*Amir's* is the "subject" of *eating* Loud is an adverb modifying *eating*.

Gerund after special verbs

Gerund/Infinitive - Explanations

Gerund/Infinitive - Exercises

We use the Gerund after the following verbs:
admit	Mr.Amir admitted having driven too fast.
avoid	They avoid going on holiday on Saturdays.
carry on	If we carry on sleeping so badly, we may need help.
consider	Ralph is considering buying a new house.
delay	I delayed telling Max the news.
deny	Mss.Anty denies reading the book.
dislike	We dislike reading poems.
can't help	Mr.Dani couldn't helps falling in love with her.
enjoy	I enjoy playing chess.
finish	They finished working in the garden.
give up	Mss.Devi gives up playing ice-hockey.
imagine	Mr.Mufly imagined driving a new car.
include	Your responsibility includes taking reservations on the phone.
involve	The project will involve growing plants.
justify	I cannot justify paying $100 for this ticket.
keep (on)	They keep on running.
mention	Did Alex ever mention playing baseball?
mind	I don't mind sleeping on the couch.
miss	They miss playing with their friends.
practise	Mss.Aryana nurul qarima practised playing hockey.
regret*	Do you regret having mentioned it?
risk	You risk catching a cold.
suggest	Mss.chichi suggested flying to Cairo.