What Is A GERUND And HOW To Use It!!

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Hey everyone! Welcome back to my channel! This is Dori I'm a teacher of English and today we're going to

talk about the gerund and how to use it first of all what is a gerund? The gerund is

nothing difficult really it is made from a verb let's just say we have the verb play and we add

the -ing form in the end, so we have "playing" and now it is not a verb anymore it becomes a noun. So, as a noun we can

use it either as the subject or the object of a sentence now let's see

some examples in order for you to understand better what I'm talking about

let's read these examples

this is our first example as you can see this is not a verb it is a noun it is

the subject of the sentence the action of smoking is bad for your health

ok it's not a verb anymore the gerund is the noun so let's move on to our next

example where the gerund is the object of a sentence in very simple terms very

simply put ok

So, listening is this gerund here as the object of the sentence and

now another example of the object

What is his favorite hobby? Again

hiking is his favourite hobby this is the gerund as the object of the sentence

That's it! Nothing to confuse you, right?Many students confuse gerunds with verbs especially with verbs in

present continuous because well the tense Present Continuous is formed if we take

again the verb play; it's formed by the verb "to be" and the -ing form of a verb. For example, I'm playing.

But in this case we have a verb

present continuous and we need both the verb "to be" and the -ing form of another verb (I'm playing)

but the gerund is just "playing" and really it's just a noun in the same way

it's not a verb in the same way

that things ideas and people are nouns so let's just see some examples in order for you to understand the difference

a little bit better so let's read these examples in order to understand the

differences

This is an example of the present continuous tense. "Is" the verb "to be" and "playing" the verb in -ing form

this is the verb in this example

here ... the gerund we have a gerund not a verb

a gerund as the subject of a sentence the action of playing is very important for children and

another example with the gerund as the object

is what? It's playing; again the action of playing.Pllaying here is a gerund and

not a verb as in this case in the present continuous continues form

So can you see the difference in both syntax grammar and

meaning with these examples in mind you'll never confuse them again. Also you need to remember

that some verbs are followed by specific prepositions for example let's see

As you can see in these examples we have verbs that are followed by certain prepositions. In these cases "to" and "for"

so in the same way there are verbs that are followed not by a preposition but by

a gerund. Unfortunately there are no rules for that you just learn these verbs as you use them

Of course some verbs are very very common so you learn them as a rule let me give you some examples to show you what I'm talking

about so here are some verbs that take a gerund after them

there are a lot of them but here are some of

them and let's read some examples

after the verb enjoy we have the gerund dancing

Last but not least another useful tip that I want to give you is that usually prepositions "of", "for". "about", "from"

are followed by a gerund afterwards. Let me give you some examples to show what I mean

okay now let's read some examples with these prepositions

again this doesn't mean that you will not use gerunds with other prepositions as well you

most certainly will but with these prepositions it is very common ok

Ok I hope this lessons helped you to understand gerund its form and its use a little bit better