Gerunds are words that are formed with verbs but act as nouns. One way to spot a gerund is to notice that they always end in -ing
For example
- I was running with my friends
- I love playing soccer
- Let’s go dancing at the club tonight.
- Swimming in the ocean is dangerous
- Going to college is expensive
- Dreaming is my hobby during long winter holidays
Tabla de contenido
- Types of Gerunds
- The Gerund as the Subject of a Sentence
- The Gerund as Direct Object in a sentence
- Gerunds as the Object of Preposition
- The Gerund as a Subject Complement
- The Gerund After Prepositions
- The Gerund After Phrasal Verbs
- The Gerund in Compound Nouns
- The Gerund After Some Expressions
- Gerunds vs. Present Participles
Types of Gerunds
We use gerunds as:
- subjects: Hiking is good for health.
- objects: He enjoys hiking.
- subject complements: My favorite activity is playing soccer
- objects of prepositions: I asked him about playing soccer
Check this chart to see how the four types of gerunds work
| Subject | Traveling is awesome | The program is awesome |
| Object | He enjoys playing | He enjoys games |
| subject complements | My favorite activity is hiking | My favorite activity is chess |
| objects of prepositions | I arrested him for speeding. | I arrested him for criminal acts |
The Gerund as the Subject of a Sentence
Gerunds can be the subject of a sentence in English
| Gerund as a subject |
| Running is very important |
Examples of gerunds as subjects of a sentence
- Gambling is a very dangerous occupation.
- Flying makes me nervous.
- Gardening is my favorite hobby.
- Running is good exercise.
- Singing makes Sarah happy
- Reading is relaxing for me
These are some examples in which gerunds phrases are the subject of the sentences
- Playing soccer is good for your health
- Creating applications is one of my passions
- Calling customers is one of the things I don’t like to do
- Doing exercises is one of the thing I do every day
The Gerund as Direct Object in a sentence
A gerund can also function as the direct object in a sentence.
Let’s look at it in the following sentence:
- Sarah enjoys singing.
- My neighbors admire my gardening
- They do not appreciate my singing
- I love reading
- Patrick loves photographing
These are some examples in which a gerund phrase acts as the object of the sentences
- I enjoy cooking with my friends
- I love testing new software
Gerunds as the Object of Preposition
These are some examples of gerunds used as the object of the preposition
- Thank you for choosing my lesson.
- I’m thinking about living in Norway
- I’m interested in collecting stamps.
- I will call you after arriving at the office.
- The police arrested him for speeding
The Gerund as a Subject Complement
These are some examples of gerunds used as subject complement
- One of life’s pleasures is having breakfast in bed.
- My favorite pastime is reading books
- Something that I hate is working long hours
- All I have been doing is watching TV
- One of the things I do is exercising
- Peter’s ideal move is walking away from his friends
- My favorite thing to do is cooking.
- My cat’s favorite activity is sleeping.
The Gerund After Prepositions
You have to use gerunds after prepositions
- Can you sneeze without opening your mouth?
- She is good at painting.
- Leslie got into trouble for talking to Sarah.
- Brush you teeth before going to bed.
- Call my mom after doing the laundry
- Besides singing, Sarah likes dancing.
The Gerund After Phrasal Verbs
We use gerunds after after we use phrasal verbs,
- When will you give up smoking?
- She always puts off going to the dentist.
- Tom looked into finding a new apartment.
- She took a long time to get over losing her mom
- I am going to quit drinking
The Gerund in Compound Nouns
We use gerunds with compound nouns
- I am giving Sally a driving lesson.
- They have a swimming pool in their back yard.
- I am taking singing lessons
- I bought some new running shoes.
- She has a dancing lesson.
The Gerund After Some Expressions
We use gerunds after we use certain verbs such as help, stand, stop, enjoy and love
- She couldn’t help falling in love with him.
- I can’t stand being stuck in traffic jams.
- When I came in they stopped talking.
- I enjoy Cooking with my mom
- I love playing soccer
Gerunds vs. Present Participles
A gerund is not the same thing as a present participle even though both terms end in “-ing.”
Sarah is singing
- In this example, “is singing” is the verb phrase. “Singing” is the present progressive verb, telling what the subject “Sarah” is doing.
