Gerunds and Gerund Phrases 2006

Verbals and Verbal Phrases: A Review Remember, when verbs do what they’re told, they are an action or a state of being… John, a 10th grader, plays Playstation 2 until PS3 comes out on the market. Easy! PLAYS is our verb, right?

Verbals and Verbal Phrases: A Review But sometimes, verbs act like NOUNS, which as we all know, can be confusing…. Playing Playstation 2 is something that John, a tenth grader likes. Now….”playing” is acting like a noun Our verb in the sentence becomes “likes” Crazy!

Gerunds Gerunds always, always, always end in –ing. They act like nouns in a sentence. They don’t act like any other part of speech. Just nouns. So they can be: Subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of a preposition.

Exercise 7, page 152

Gerunds Okay, now a few examples within sentences… Leaving one’s school during senior year is painful. Gerund: leaving (subject) The result was winning the football game with a safety in the fourth quarter. Gerund: winning (object of result)

Gerunds vs Present Participles A gerund ends in –ing and acts like a noun in a sentence. A present participle ends in –ing and acts like an adjective in a sentence

Gerunds vs Present Participles Francisco’s first love is swimming. Swimming is a gerund Francisco’s swimming coach was eaten by a great white shark Swimming is a participle (acts like an adjective) It modifies “coach”

How do you know if you have a gerund? Replace –ing verbs with “it” If the sentence makes sense, you’ve got a gerund If not, it’s a present participle

Practice Exercise 8, page 153. Partner – OK Write the gerund phrase ONLY. Do nothing else. Partner – OK Write the names of the exercises