What Is a Gerund? Definition and Examples Lindsay KramerUpdated on April 22, 2025Grammar Tips Key takeaways: Gerunds are verbs ending in -ing that act as nouns in a sentence. They take on roles like subject, object, or complement. Identify gerunds by checking if the -ing word functions ...
It isn’t our place to judge the habits of parts of speech, but it is worth taking a closer look at gerunds to figure out the best ways to use them in sentences. (You don’t want their identity crisis to make you look like a fool who uses improper grammar!) What is agerund? Ag...
In the third sentence, the gerund running is acting as the object of the verb suggests. How do gerund phrases work? They act like a noun Gerunds can appear alone or band together with other words to form a gerund phrase. Collectively, this phrase behaves like a single noun. Running is ...
Gerunds: Verbs Ending in -ing | Definition, Usage & Examples from Chapter 1 / Lesson 2 44K Learn about the gerund ending and see how it is a type of verbal used in a sentence. Study verbs ending in -ing examples to understand how gerunds work. Related...
Gerunds and gerund phrases always function as nouns. They can act as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, predicate nominatives, or objects of a preposition in a sentence. To determine whether a word or phrase is functioning as a gerund versus a present participle, try replacing it with...
What is a gerund and why do you need to know? Maybe it would be better to answer the second part of the question first so that you have some motivation to identify gerunds. If you are able to pick the gerund(s) out in your sentence, you will avoid a grammar gaffe that often goes...
Use thebest grammar checkeravailable to check for common mistakes in your text. Fix mistakes for free Pronouns vs. nouns While pronouns constitute a relatively small class of words that tends not to change over time,nounsare a much broader class that is constantly expanding. Like pronouns, nouns...
Objects That Are Gerunds A gerund is a grammatical unit that’s derived from a verb. Consider this example: “After finishing dinner, please put your plate in the dishwasher.” Here, the object attached to the preposition (“after”) is a gerund (“finishing dinner”). Gerunds can help ...
There are two other types of verbals: gerunds and participles. Warning: Before we get to the lesson, I just want to note that these guys can get pretty complicated. If you're just learning grammar and you're still feeling shaky about terms like the parts of speech or prepositional phrases...
Gerunds Other interesting language articles Frequently asked questions about verbs Verb conjugation Verbs can change form depending onsubject,tense,mood, andvoice. This is called conjugation. Subject There are sixsubjectforms in English: IFirst personsingular ...