(grammar) A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently; however, this distinction may be ambiguous or unclear and so is no longer made in some modern texts such as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language)
Used in a Sentence
gerunds
Definitions, parts of speech, synonyms, and sentence examples for gerunds.
Editorial note
But words (verbs, gerunds, etc.) are not enough - you need to know the rules for composing them.
Examples16
Definitions2
Parts of speech1
Quick take
(grammar) A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently; however, this distinction may be ambiguous or unclear and so is no longer made in some modern texts such as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language)
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of gerunds gathered in one view.
(grammar) In some languages such as Dutch, Italian or Russian, a verbal form similar to a present participle, but functioning as an adverb to form adverbial phrases or continuous tense. These constructions have various names besides gerund, depending on the language, such as conjunctive participles, active participles, adverbial participles, transgressives, etc.
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for gerunds.
noun
(grammar) A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently; however, this distinction may be ambiguous or unclear and so is no longer made in some modern texts such as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language)
noun
(grammar) In some languages such as Dutch, Italian or Russian, a verbal form similar to a present participle, but functioning as an adverb to form adverbial phrases or continuous tense. These constructions have various names besides gerund, depending on the language, such as conjunctive participles, active participles, adverbial participles, transgressives, etc.
Example sentences
But words (verbs, gerunds, etc.) are not enough - you need to know the rules for composing them.
Present participles and gerunds have the same form in English, but not in all languages that have these.
One should give instructions in active voice, with simple verb tenses, and avoid the use of present participles or gerunds.
It also has gerunds and participles, and all of this before we even start thinking about verbs of motion.
I modified one aspect of the sentence to maintain parallelism between the two gerunds without making sure it still made grammatical sense.
There are no capped forks and, more importantly, no gerunds.
For example, it has only two verb tags, whereas Penn has separate tags for infinitives, gerunds, past forms, etc.
Or you could just drop stop words and gerunds.
Aren't there some dropped Gs in those gerunds?
In addition, the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds (by examination of instead of by examining).
Your examples are participles, not gerunds.
I'm not saying gerunds are nouns because they refer to objects -- I'm saying they're nouns because they can be the subjects of verbs (and otherwise appear where nouns appear).
Quote examples
You don't see many writers going around writing pieces on "gerunds for code" and things like that.
If we insisted on only using gerunds + "do", English would be a very strange world indeed.
A lot of grammar, like adding "ing" to the end of verbs and gerunds, is pretty baffling to someone who hasn't grown up hearing them in speech.
Regardless: recognized compound verbs and gerunds are listed in dictionaries (like "desensitize" or "delist").
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use gerunds in a sentence?
But words (verbs, gerunds, etc.) are not enough - you need to know the rules for composing them.
What does gerunds mean?
(grammar) A verbal form that functions as a verbal noun. (In English, a gerund has the same spelling as a present participle, but functions differently; however, this distinction may be ambiguous or unclear and so is no longer made in some modern texts such as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language)
What part of speech is gerunds?
gerunds is commonly used as noun.