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Gerunds and Gerund Phrases
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?
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!
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.
Gerunds
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Let’s try a few….
To swim
Swimming
To eat
Eating
To dance
Dancing
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
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
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”
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….