Gerund

The gerund as the subject of the sentence

Examples

• Eating people is wrong.
• Hunting tigers is dangerous.
• Flying makes me nervous.
• Brushing your teeth is important.
• Smoking causes lung cancer.

The gerund as the complement of the verb 'to be'

Examples

• One of his duties is attending meetings.
• The hardest thing about learning English is understanding the gerund.
• One of life's pleasures is having breakfast in bed.

The gerund after prepositions

The gerund must be used when a verb comes after a preposition. This is also true of certain expressions ending in a preposition, for example the expressions in spite of & there's no point in.

Examples

• Can you sneeze without opening your mouth?
• She is good at painting.
• She avoided him by walking on the opposite side of the road.
• We arrived in Madrid after driving all night.
• My father decided against postponing his trip to Hungary.
• There's no point in waiting.
• In spite of missing the train, we arrived on time.

The gerund after phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are composed of a verb + preposition or adverb.

Examples

• When will you give up smoking?
• She always puts off going to the dentist.
• He kept on asking for money.
• Jim ended up buying a new TV after his old one broke.

There are some phrasal verbs that include the word "to" as a preposition for example to look forward to, to take to, to be accustomed to, to get around to, & to be used to. It is important to recognise that the word "to" is a preposition in these cases because it must be followed by a gerund. It is not part of the infinitive form of the verb. You can check whether "to" is a preposition or part of the infinitive. If you can put the pronoun "it" after the word "to" and form a meaningful sentence, then the word "to" is a preposition and must be followed by a gerund.

Examples

• I look forward to hearing from you soon.
• I look forward to it.
• I am used to waiting for buses.
• I am used to it.
• She didn't really take to studying English.
• She didn't really take to it.
• When will you get around to mowing the grass?
• When will you get around to it?

The gerund in compound nouns

In compound nouns using the gerund, it is clear that the meaning is that of a noun, not of a continuous verb. For example, with the word "swimming pool" it is a pool for swimming in, it is not a pool that is swimming.

Examples

• I am giving Sally a driving lesson.
• They have a swimming pool in their back yard.
• I bought some new running shoes.

The gerund after some expressions

The gerund is necessary after the expressions can't help, can't stand, to be worth, & it's no use.

Examples

• She couldn't help falling in love with him.
• I can't stand being stuck in traffic jams.
• It's no use trying to escape.
• It might be worth phoning the station to check the time of the train.