Present Participle vs. Gerunds
Present Participle vs. Gerunds
Present Participle vs. Gerunds
gerund
present participle
Since the simple gerund and the present participle have the same form (verb-ing), sometimes it can be difficult to decide whether an -ing form is a gerund or a present participle. It may be worth remembering that a gerund always functions as a noun:
Function
Example sentence
Subject
Complement
Object of a verb
Object of a preposition
Function
Example sentence
Continuous aspect
I wasn't listening. What have you been doing? You must be joking. I happened to be passing your house.
Adjective
The survey revealed some worrying results. The results of the survey were/seemed worrying.
Participle clauses
The man driving the car was not injured. Tom lost his keys (while) walking through the park. Opening the envelope, I found two concert tickets. Having nothing left to do, Paula went home.
Sometimes it is a matter of interpretation whether an -ing form is a gerund or a present participle: Hunting lions can be dangerous. Hunting as a present participle functions as an adjective and describes lions. The sentence means: Lions that hunt can be dangerous. If hunting is a gerund, lions is its object and the sentence means: It can be dangerous to hunt lions.
as part of the continuous form of a verb, he is painting; she has been waiting after verbs of movement/position in the pattern: verb + present participle, She sat looking at the sea after verbs of perception in the pattern: verb + object + present participle, We saw him swimming
The gerund:
This always has the same function as a noun (although it looks like a verb), so it can be used:
as the subject of the sentence: Eating people is wrong. after prepositions: Can you sneeze without opening your mouth? She is good at painting after certain verbs, e.g. like, hate, admit, imagine in compound nouns, e.g. a driving lesson, a swimming pool, bird-watching, train-spotting