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WIKIBOOKS
DISPONIBILI
?????????

ART
- Great Painters
BUSINESS&LAW
- Accounting
- Fundamentals of Law
- Marketing
- Shorthand
CARS
- Concept Cars
GAMES&SPORT
- Videogames
- The World of Sports

COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
- Blogs
- Free Software
- Google
- My Computer

- PHP Language and Applications
- Wikipedia
- Windows Vista

EDUCATION
- Education
LITERATURE
- Masterpieces of English Literature
LINGUISTICS
- American English

- English Dictionaries
- The English Language

MEDICINE
- Medical Emergencies
- The Theory of Memory
MUSIC&DANCE
- The Beatles
- Dances
- Microphones
- Musical Notation
- Music Instruments
SCIENCE
- Batteries
- Nanotechnology
LIFESTYLE
- Cosmetics
- Diets
- Vegetarianism and Veganism
TRADITIONS
- Christmas Traditions
NATURE
- Animals

- Fruits And Vegetables



ARTICLES IN THE BOOK

  1. Adverbial
  2. Agentive ending
  3. Ain't
  4. American and British English differences
  5. American and British English pronunciation differences
  6. American and British English spelling differences
  7. American English
  8. Amn't
  9. Anglophone
  10. Anglosphere
  11. Apostrophe
  12. Australian English
  13. Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet
  14. Bracket
  15. British and American keyboards
  16. British English
  17. Canadian English
  18. Certificate of Proficiency in English
  19. Classical compound
  20. Cockney
  21. Colon
  22. Comma
  23. Comma splice
  24. Cut Spelling
  25. Dangling modifier
  26. Dash
  27. Definite article reduction
  28. Disputed English grammar
  29. Don't-leveling
  30. Double copula
  31. Double negative
  32. Ellipsis
  33. English alphabet
  34. English compound
  35. English declension
  36. English English
  37. English grammar
  38. English honorifics
  39. English irregular verbs
  40. English language learning and teaching
  41. English modal auxiliary verb
  42. English orthography
  43. English passive voice
  44. English personal pronouns
  45. English phonology
  46. English plural
  47. English relative clauses
  48. English spelling reform
  49. English verbs
  50. English words with uncommon properties
  51. Estuary English
  52. Exclamation mark
  53. Foreign language influences in English
  54. Full stop
  55. Generic you
  56. Germanic strong verb
  57. Gerund
  58. Going-to future
  59. Grammatical tense
  60. Great Vowel Shift
  61. Guillemets
  62. Habitual be
  63. History of linguistic prescription in English
  64. History of the English language
  65. Hyphen
  66. I before e except after c
  67. IELTS
  68. Initial-stress-derived noun
  69. International Phonetic Alphabet for English
  70. Interpunct
  71. IPA chart for English
  72. It's me
  73. Languages of the United Kingdom
  74. Like
  75. List of animal adjectives
  76. List of British idioms
  77. List of British words not widely used in the United States
  78. List of case-sensitive English words
  79. List of commonly confused homonyms
  80. List of common misspellings in English
  81. List of common words that have two opposite senses
  82. List of dialects of the English language
  83. List of English apocopations
  84. List of English auxiliary verbs
  85. List of English homographs
  86. List of English irregular verbs
  87. List of English prepositions
  88. List of English suffixes
  89. List of English words invented by Shakespeare
  90. List of English words of Celtic origin
  91. List of English words of Italian origin
  92. List of English words with disputed usage
  93. List of frequently misused English words
  94. List of Fumblerules
  95. List of homophones
  96. List of -meters
  97. List of names in English with non-intuitive pronunciations
  98. List of words having different meanings in British and American English
  99. List of words of disputed pronunciation
  100. London slang
  101. Longest word in English
  102. Middle English
  103. Modern English
  104. Names of numbers in English
  105. New Zealand English
  106. Northern subject rule
  107. Not!
  108. NuEnglish
  109. Oxford spelling
  110. Personal pronoun
  111. Phonological history of the English language
  112. Phrasal verb
  113. Plural of virus
  114. Possessive adjective
  115. Possessive antecedent
  116. Possessive me
  117. Possessive of Jesus
  118. Possessive pronoun
  119. Preposition stranding
  120. Pronunciation of English th
  121. Proper adjective
  122. Question mark
  123. Quotation mark
  124. Received Pronunciation
  125. Regional accents of English speakers
  126. Rhyming slang
  127. Run-on sentence
  128. Scouse
  129. Semicolon
  130. Semordnilap
  131. Serial comma
  132. Shall and will
  133. Silent E
  134. Singular they
  135. Slash
  136. SoundSpel
  137. Space
  138. Spelling reform
  139. Split infinitive
  140. Subjective me
  141. Suffix morpheme
  142. Tag question
  143. Than
  144. The Reverend
  145. Third person agreement leveling
  146. Thou
  147. TOEFL
  148. TOEIC
  149. Truespel
  150. University of Cambridge ESOL examination
  151. Weak form and strong form
  152. Welsh English
  153. Who
  154. You

 

 
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THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
This article is from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License 

Gerund

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

In linguistics, a gerund is a kind of verbal noun that exists in some languages. In today's English, it can behave as a verb within a clause (so that, for example, it may be modified by an adverb or have an object), but the clause as a whole (sometimes consisting only of one word, the gerund) acts as a noun within the larger sentence. For example:

Editing this article is very easy.

Within the clause "Editing this article," the word "Editing" behaves as a verb; in particular the phrase "this article" is the object of that verb. But the whole clause "Editing this article" acts as a noun within the sentence as a whole; it is the subject of the verb "is".

In English, a verb's gerund is formed using the -ing ending. It is identical to the present participle in form, but behaves differently in syntax.

Examples of the gerund:

  • I like swimming. (direct object)
  • Programming is fun. (subject)

Verb patterns with the gerund

Verbs that are normally followed by the gerund include admit, adore, anticipate, appreciate, avoid, can't stand, carry on, consider, contemplate, delay, deny, describe, detest, dislike, enjoy, escape, fancy, feel, finish, give up, hear, imagine, include, justify, keep (on), listen to, mention, mind, miss, notice, observe, perceive, postpone, practise, quit, recall, report, resent, resume, risk, see, sense, stop, suggest, tolerate, and watch.

Additionally, the prepositions "into" and "out of" can be followed by a gerund.

For example:

  • We postponed making any decision.
  • I simply adore reading what you write.
  • I detest going to the cinema.
  • We heard whispering.
  • His physician advised leaving home for a week.
  • They denied having avoided me. (= They denied that they had 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

begin, continue, start; hate, like, love, prefer

With would, the verbs hate, like, love, and prefer are usually followed by the to-infinitive.

For example:

  • I hate to work. or I hate working.
  • I love to sleep. or I love sleeping.
  • I would like to work there. (more usual than working)

In these examples, if the subject of the verb is not the subject of the second verb, the second verb must be a gerund (instead of an infinitive)

If I am watching sports on television, for example, I can react to the programs only as follows:

  • I hate boxing.
  • I love swimming.

With a change in meaning

dread and hate:

These two verbs are followed by a to-infinitive when talking hypothetically (usually 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.

forget and remember:

When these have meanings which 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 our plans. (She did not tell me, though she should have.)
  • She forgot telling me our 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, and so I did.)
  • I remembered going to work. (I remembered the action of previously going to work.)

can't bear:

  • I can't bear to see you suffer like this. (You are suffering now.)
  • I can't bear being pushed round in crowds. (I never like that.)

go on:

  • After winning the semi-finals, he went on to play in the finals. (He completed the semi-finals, then later played in the finals.)
  • He went on giggling, not having noticed the teacher enter. (He continued doing so.)

mean:

  • I didn't mean to scare you off!
  • Her having got a new job in the city meant leaving behind her familiar surroundings.

advise, recommend and forbid:

These are followed by a to-infinitive when there is an object as well, but with a gerund otherwise.

  • The police advised us not to enter the building, for a murder had occurred. (us is the object)
  • The police advised against our entering the building.

regret:

  • We regret to inform you that you have failed your exam. (a polite or formal form of apology)
  • I very much regret saying what I said. (I wish I hadn't said that.)

consider, contemplate and 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'm considering sleeping over, if you don't mind.

try:

When a to-infinitive is used, it means the subject makes an effort at; attempt or endeavor to do something. If a gerund is used, it means the subject attempts 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.

Gerunds preceded by an object or a genitive

A gerund can be used in combination with either an object or a genitive (possessive). The latter is considered more formal, and the only option when an adjective precedes the gerund, but is more common when the second verb applies to a person rather than an object.

  • We enjoyed them (object pronoun) / their (genitive) singing.
  • We enjoyed their excellent singing. (an object pronoun is not possible here)

Some differences between gerunds and the present participle

The term "gerund" is sometimes used incorrectly to mean any word ending with "ing". For example:

  • Jane was swimming in the sea. (Here "swimming" is a participle verb)

Compare:

  • John enjoys eating a good meal. ("eating" is a gerund)
  • John is eating a good meal. ("eating" is a participle verb)

In the rest of this article, an asterisk (*) preceding a sentence indicates that the sentence is ungrammatical.

Passivisation

A sentence with gerund phrase serving as a direct object can be recast in the passive voice, such that the gerund phrase becomes the subject, while a superficially similar sentence with a participle cannot undergo this transformation:

  • With a gerund phrase: John suggested asking Bill.Asking Bill was suggested by John. (potentially awkward, but grammatical)
  • With a participle phrase: John kept asking Bill. → * Asking Bill was kept by John.

In the first example, asking Bill is a noun, the direct object of suggested, while in the second, it is an adjective, the complement of the copula kept.

Pronominal substitution

The pronoun it can be substituted for a gerund phrase, but not for a participle verb phrase:

  • John disliked discussing his private life — in fact he hated it.
  • * John kept discussing his daughter — he kept it all summer. (Ungrammatical: the pronoun it cannot stand in for the participle.)

Noun phrase paraphrases

A gerund with a direct object can be paraphrased, treating the gerund as an ordinary noun, or sometimes replacing it with one, while this cannot be done with a participle:

  • With a gerund phrase: John enjoys eating fish.John enjoys the eating of fish. (unusual or archaic-sounding, but grammatical)
  • With a participle phrase: John keeps eating fish. → *John keeps the eating of fish.

Preceding genitive phrases

Gerund phrases can be preceded by genitive phrases, whereas participle verb phrases cannot:

  • Samantha discussed her visiting James.
  • * Samantha kept her visiting James.

Clefting

Gerund phrases can undergo clefting, whereas participle verb phrases cannot:

  • The teacher warned against taking drugs.It was taking drugs that the teacher warned against.
  • The teacher kept taking drugs. → *It was taking drugs that the teacher kept.

Topicalisation

Gerund phrases can be topicalised (i.e., moved to the front of a sentence) whereas participle verb phrases cannot:

  • Susan finds watching golf tedious. Watching golf Susan finds tedious. (only used in specific contexts, but grammatical)
  • The old man kept discussing golf. → *Discussing golf the old man kept.

See also

  • wikibooks:English:Gerund
  • Verbal
  • Gerundive
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund"