GERUND
The
gerund (/ˈdʒɛrənd/ or /ˈdʒɛrʌnd/) is a non-finite verb form that can function
as a noun in Latin and English grammar. The English gerund ends in -ing (as in
I enjoy playing basketball). The same verb form also serves as the English
present participle (which has an adjectival or adverbial function) and as a
pure verbal noun. Thus the -ing form in the English language can function as a
noun, verb, adjective or sometimes adverb; in certain sentences the distinction
can be arbitrary.
The
gerund is the form that names the action of the verb (for instance, playing is
the action of "to play"). In some cases, a noun ending in -ing
sometimes serves as a gerund (as in I like building / I like building things, I
like painting / I like painting pictures, and I like writing / I like writing
novels), while at other times serving as a non-gerund indicating the product
resulting from an action (as in I work in that building, That is a good
painting, and Her writing is good). The latter case can often be distinguished
by the presence of a determiner before the noun, such as that, a, or her in
these examples.
The
Latin gerund (gerundium) is a verb form which behaves similarly to a noun,
although it can only appear in certain oblique cases. (It should not be confused
with the Latin gerundive, which is similar in form, but has a passive,
adjectival use.)
In
relation to other languages, the term gerund may be applied to a form which has
noun-like uses like the Latin and English gerunds, or in some cases to various
other non-finite verb forms, such as adverbial participles.
Gerund
comes from the Latin gerundium, which itself derives from the gerundive of the
Latin verb gero, namely gerundus, meaning "(which is) to be carried
out".
Gerunds in various languages
Meanings
of the term gerund as used in relation to various languages are listed below.
As
applied to Arabic, it refers to the verb's action noun, known as the masdar
form (Arabic: المصدر). This form ends in a tanwin and is generally the
equivalent of the -ing ending in English.
As
applied to English, it refers to the -ing form of a verb when it is used, as a
noun (for example, the verb reading in the sentence "I enjoy
reading."). As applied to French, it refers either to the adverbial
participle—also called the gerundive—or to the present adjectival participle.
As
applied to German, Dutch, and the other continental West Germanic languages it
refers to a neuter verbal noun that is identical or similar in form to the
infinitive.
As
applied to Hebrew, it refers either to the verb's action noun, or to the part
of the infinitive following the infinitival prefix (also called the infinitival
construct).
As
applied to Italian, it refers to an adverbial participle (a verbal adverb),
called the gerundio, formed by appending -ando or -endo, to the verb stem, like
how litigare becomes litigando and cadere becomes cadendo.
As
applied to Japanese, it designates verb and verbals adjective forms in
dictionary form paired with the referral particle no, which turns the verbal
into a concept or property noun, or also can refer to the -te form of a verb.
As applied to
Korean, it refers to the word '것'('thing')
modified by the adjective form of the verb.
As
applied to Latin, its form is based on the participle ending, similarly to
English. The –ns ending is replaced with -ndus, and the preceding ā or ē is
shortened. However, the gerund is only ever seen in the accusative form
(-ndum), genitive form (-ndi), dative form (-ndo) or ablative form (-ndo). (See
Latin conjugation.) If the gerund is needed in the nominative form, the present
infinitive is used instead.
As
applied to Macedonian, it refers to the verb noun formed by adding the suffix
-јќи (-jki) to the verb form, like in јаде (jade, he eats) — јадејќи (jadejki,
while eating).
As
applied to Persian, it refers to the verb's action noun, known as the
ism-masdar form (Persian: اسم مصدر).
As
applied to Portuguese, it refers to an adverbial participle (a verbal adverb),
called gerúndio.
As
applied to Romanian, it refers to an adverbial participle (a verbal adverb),
called the gerunziu, formed by appending -ând or -ind, to the verb stem, like
in cântând/fugind".
As
applied to Spanish, it refers to an adverbial participle (a verbal adverb),
called in Spanish the gerundio.
As
applied to Turkish, it refers to the Turkish verbal nouns formed by appending
-ma or -me, depending on vowel harmony,( not to confuse with the negational -ma
postfix.)
In
other languages, it may refer to almost any non-finite verb form; however, it
most often refers to an action noun, by analogy with its use as applied to
English or Latin.
Gerunds in English
In
English, the gerund is one of the uses of the form of the verb ending in -ing
(for details of its formation and spelling, see English verbs). This same verb
form has other uses besides the gerund: it can serve as a present participle
(used adjectivally or adverbially), and as a pure verbal noun.
A
gerund behaves as a verb within a clause (so that it may be modified by an
adverb or have an object); but the resulting clause as a whole (sometimes
consisting of only one word, the gerund itself) functions as a noun within the
larger sentence.
For
example, consider the sentence "Eating this cake is easy." Here the
gerund is the verb eating, which takes an object this cake. The entire clause
eating this cake is then used as a noun, which in this case serves as the
subject of the larger sentence.
An
item such as eating this cake in the foregoing example is an example of a
non-finite verb phrase; however, because phrases of this type do not require a
subject, it is also a complete clause. (Traditionally such an item would be
referred to as a phrase, but in modern linguistics it has become common to call
it a clause.) A gerund clause such as this is one of the types of non-finite
clause.
Formation
A gerund has
four forms — two for the active voice and two for the passive:
Active Passive
Present or
Continuous Loving Being loved
Perfect Having loved Having
been loved
Examples of use
The following
sentences illustrate some uses of gerund clauses, showing how such a clause
serves as a noun within the larger sentence. In some cases the clause consists
of just the gerund (although in many such cases the word could equally be
analyzed as a pure verbal noun).
Swimming is fun.
(gerund as subject of the sentence)
I like swimming.
(gerund as direct object)
I never gave
swimming all that much effort. (gerund as indirect object)
Eating biscuits
in front of the television is one way to relax. (gerund phrase as subject)
Do you fancy
going out? (gerund phrase as direct object)
On being elected
president, he moved with his family to the capital. (gerund phrase as
complement of a preposition)
Using gerunds of
the appropriate auxiliary verbs, one can form gerund clauses that express
perfect aspect and passive voice:
Being deceived
can make someone feel angry. (passive)
Having read the
book once before makes me more prepared. (perfect)
He is ashamed of
having been gambling all night. (perfect progressive aspect)
For more detail
on when it is appropriate to use a gerund, see Verb patterns with the gerund
below, and also Uses of English verb forms: Gerund.
Distinction from other uses of the -ing form
Gerunds
are distinguished grammatically from other uses of a verb's -ing form: the
present participle (which is a non-finite verb form like the gerund, but is
adjectival or adverbial in function), and the pure verbal noun or deverbal
noun.
The distinction
between gerund and present participle is illustrated in the following
sentences:
John suggested
asking Bill. (asking Bill is the object of the verb, i.e. a noun, so asking is
a gerund)
I heard John
asking Bill. (asking Bill is adjectival, describing John, so asking is a
participle)
The
distinction between the gerund and the pure verbal (deverbal) noun is that the
gerund itself behaves as a verb, forming a verb phrase which is then used as a
noun, whereas the pure noun does not in any way behave grammatically as a
verb.[3] This is illustrated in the following examples:
I like playing
football. (playing takes an object, so is a gerund)
Her playing of
the Bach fugues was inspiring. (playing takes a prepositional phrase rather
than an object; not a gerund)
For more details
and examples of the distinctions introduced here, see -ing: uses.
Gerunds with a specified subject
A
gerund cannot take a grammatical subject as a finite verb does. (The -ing verb
form can take a subject in nominative absolute constructions such as The day
being over, ..., but here it is a present participle rather than a gerund.)
Normally the subject of the gerund is considered unspecified, or is understood
to be the same as the subject of the main clause: in a sentence like "Meg
likes eating apricots", the subject of eating is understood to be the same
as the subject of the main clause, namely Meg – what Meg likes is a situation
where she herself is eating apricots (see also raising verb). However in other
cases it is necessary to specify explicitly who or what is to be understood as
the subject of the gerund.
Many
prescriptive grammarians prefer the subject of such a gerund to be expressed
using the possessive form, since the gerund clause serves as a noun phrase.
Hence:
We enjoyed their
singing. (i.e. the singing that was done by them)
The cat's
licking the cream was not generally appreciated. (i.e. the licking that was
done by the cat)
We were
delighted at Paul's being awarded the prize. (i.e. the awarding of the prize to
Paul)
The above
construction is common in formal English; however in informal English it is
often more usual to use just the noun or noun phrase (in the objective case, in
the case of personal pronouns) to indicate the subject, without any possessive
marker.
We enjoyed them
singing.
The cat licking
the cream was not generally appreciated.
We were
delighted at Paul being awarded the prize.
The
above usage, though common, is criticized by some prescriptivists, since it
apparently places two noun phrases (the agent and the gerund clause) together
without any indication of their syntactic relation. It is compared with a
superficially identical construction in which the -ing form is a present
participle, and it is entirely appropriate for it to be preceded by a noun
phrase, since the participial clause can be taken to qualify that noun phrase:
I saw the cat
licking the cream. (i.e. I saw the cat, and the cat was licking the cream)
However
others say that it is entirely acceptable to express the subject of the gerund
with just the noun or the noun phrase in the nominative case or in the
objective case, since the gerund is not a deverbal noun, but a verbal noun,
i.e., a normal verb in a dependent noun clause.
The
use of a non-possessive noun to precede a gerund is said to arise as a result
of confusion with the above usage with a participle, and is thus sometimes
called fused participle[4] or geriple.[5] This construction represents common
informal usage with gerunds; however, if the prescriptive rule is followed, the
difference between the two forms may be used to make a slight distinction in
meaning:
The teacher's
shouting startled the student. (shouting is a gerund, the shouting startled the
student)
The teacher
shouting startled the student. (shouting can be interpreted as a participle,
qualifying the teacher; the teacher startled the student by shouting)
I don't like
Jim's drinking wine. (I don't like the drinking)
I don't like Jim
drinking wine. (I don't like Jim when he is drinking wine)
In some cases,
particularly with a non-personal subject, the use of the possessive before a
gerund may be considered redundant even in quite a formal register. For
example, "There is no chance of the snow falling" (rather than the
prescriptively correct "There is no chance of the snow's falling").
Verb patterns with the gerund
Verbs
that are often followed by a gerund include admit, adore, anticipate,
appreciate, avoid, carry on, consider, contemplate, delay, deny, describe,
detest, dislike, enjoy, escape, fancy, feel, finish, give, hear, imagine,
include, justify, listen to, mention, mind, miss, notice, observe, perceive,
postpone, practice, quit, recall, report, resent, resume, risk, see, sense,
sleep, stop, suggest, tolerate and watch. Additionally, prepositions are often
followed by a gerund.
For example:
I will never
quit smoking.
We postponed
making any decision.
After two years
of analyzing, we finally made a decision.
We heard
whispering.
They denied
having avoided me.
He talked me
into coming to the party.
They frightened
her out of voicing her opinion.
Verbs followed by a gerund or a to-infinitive
With little
change in meaning
advise,
recommend, forbid:
These are
followed by a to-infinitive when there is an object as well, but by a gerund
otherwise.
The police
advised us not to enter the building, for a murder had occurred. (Us is the
object of advised.)
The police
advised against our entering the building. (Our is used for the gerund
entering.)
consider,
contemplate, recommend:
These verbs are
followed by a to-infinitive only in the passive or with an object pronoun.
People consider
her to be the best. – She is considered to be the best.
I am considering
sleeping over, if you do not mind.
begin, continue,
start; hate, like, love, prefer:
With would, the
verbs hate, like, love, and prefer are usually followed by the to-infinitive.
I would like to
work there. (more usual than working)
When talking
about sports, there is usually a difference in meaning between the infinitive
and gerund (see the next section).
With a change in
meaning
like, love,
prefer:
In some
contexts, following these verbs with a to-infinitive when the subject of the first
verb is the subject of the second verb provides more clarity than a gerund.
I like to box.
(I enjoy doing it myself.)
I like boxing.
(Either I enjoy watching it, I enjoy doing it myself, or the idea of boxing is
otherwise appealing.)
I do not like gambling,
but I do like to gamble."
dread, hate,
cannot bear:
These verbs are
followed by a to-infinitive when talking subjunctively (often when using to
think), but by a gerund when talking about general dislikes.
I dread / hate
to think what she will do.
I dread / hate
seeing him.
I cannot bear to
see you suffer like this. (You are suffering now.)
I cannot bear
being pushed around in crowds. (I never like that.)
forget,
remember:
When
these have meanings that are used to talk about the future from the given time,
the to-infinitive is used, but when looking back in time, the gerund.
She forgot to
tell me her plans. (She did not tell me, although she should have.)
She forgot
telling me her plans. (She told me, but then forgot having done so.)
I remembered to
go to work. (I remembered that I needed to go to work.)
I remembered
going to work. (I remembered that I went to work.)
go on:
After winning
the semi-finals, he went on to play in the finals. (He completed the
semi-finals and later played in the finals.)
He went on
giggling, not having noticed the teacher enter. (He continued doing so.)
mean:
I did not mean
to scare you off. (I did not intend to scare you off.)
Taking a new JOB
in the city meant leaving behind her familiar surroundings. (If she took the
JOB, she would have to leave behind her familiar surroundings.)
regret:
We regret to
inform you that you have failed your exam. (polite or formal form of apology)
I very much
regret saying what I said. (I wish that I had not said that.)
try:
When a to-infinitive
is used, the subject is shown to make an effort at something, attempt or
endeavor to do something. If a gerund is used, the subject is shown to attempt
to do something in testing to see what might happen.
Please try to
remember to post my letter.
I have tried
being stern, but to no avail.
stop, quit:
When
the infinitive is used after 'stop' or 'quit', it means that the subject stops
one activity and starts the activity indicated by the infinitive. If the gerund
is used, it means that the subject stops the activity indicated by the gerund.
She stopped to
smell the flowers.
She stopped
smelling the flowers.
Or more
concisely:
She stopped
walking to smell the flowers.
He quit working
there to travel abroad.
Borrowings of English gerunds in other languages
English
verb forms ending in -ing are sometimes borrowed into other languages. In some
cases they become pseudo-anglicisms, taking on new meanings or uses which are
not found in English. For instance, camping means "campsite" in many
languages, while parking often means a car park. For more details and examples,
see -ing words in other languages.
In
popular culture
In
the Molesworth books by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle, Searle included a
series of cartoons on the "private life of the gerund",[6] intended
to parody the linguistic snobbery of Latin teachers' striving after strict
grammatical correctness and the difficulty experienced by students in
comprehending the construction.
Owen
Johnson's "Lawrenceville Stories" feature a Latin teacher who
constantly demands that his students determine whether a given word is a gerund
or a gerundive.
In
an episode of Dan Vs., "The Ninja", after Dan's milk carton exploded
from the ninja's shuriken, a teenager said to Dan "Drinking problem
much?" and Dan complained that the sentence had no verb, just a
gerund.[citation needed]
In
Alan Bennett's play, 'The History Boys', Dakin, when flirting with Irwin,
states that 'your sucking me off' is a gerund and 'would please Hector'.
References
"Merriam-Websterdefinition". WordNet
1.7.1. Retrieved 2014-03-19. A noun formed from a verb (such as the '-ing' form
of an English verb when used as a noun).
F T Wood, 1961, "NESFIELD'S ENGLISH
GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION AND USAGE, MACMILLAN AND COMPANY LTD., p 78 "
Re: Post Hey man, I gots ta know (Gerund
versus gerundive), Phil White, Mon August 7, 2006 1:35 pm
H.W.
Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 1926
Penguin
guide to plain English, Harry Blamires (Penguin Books Ltd., 2000) ISBN
978-0-14-051430-8 pp.144-146
"The
Private Life of the Gerund". Molesworth.;
