What's the difference between a Gerund and a Participle?
62What's the difference between a Gerund and a Participle?
Gerund
: a verbal noun in Latin that expresses generalized or uncompleted action
: any of several linguistic forms analogous to the Latin gerund in languages other than Latin; especially : the English verbal noun in -ing that has the function of a substantive and at the same time shows the verbal features of tense, voice, and capacity to take adverbial qualifiers and to govern objects
: A Gerund is a verb and noun combined. eg: "I think of retiring soon from business."
Retiring is a verb, being part of the verb retire. It is also a noun, because it is object to the preposition 'of.
Participle
: a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective; especially : an English verbal form that has the function of an adjective and at the same time shows such verbal features as tense and voice and capacity to take an object
: A Participle is a verb and adjective combined. eg: "A retired officer lives next door." or "She was killed by a falling tile."
Retired is a verb, being part of the verb to retire. It is also an adjective, because it qualifies the noun 'officer'. Falling is a verb, since it is part of the verb to fall, but it is also an adjective in that it qualifies the noun 'tile'. Hence a participle may be called a verbal adjective.
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Darkside, I loved this. I joined your fan club because I loved it so much.
One of my pet peeves is the use of objective pronouns before gerundial phrases. It makes me cringe. It just sounds so ridiculous.
For example, it drives me insane to hear:
"I disapprove of you doing drugs."
"Doing" in that sentence is a gerund, "doing drugs" is a gerundial phrase. It has to be proceeded by a possessive pronoun. The correct version of that sentence is:
"I disapprove of your doing drugs."
Thanks, I appreciate your letting me vent. (wink)
I must say Veronica, you have added value to this hub!
I approve of you doing that? :D
YOUR doing that. Very funny.
Don't make me growl and giggle at the same time ;)
Have a wonderful holiday!
ThanK U Vory Moch
Gee, I always thought it was the other way around Veronica. I suppose an explanation would be to examine whether, "I disapprove of 'you,'" or "I disapprove of 'your'"...doing drugs. Thanks for the tip.
Thanku very much. This might help me with my grammer test. It was straightforward and to the point.
I dont get any of this stuff. It makes no sense to me.
thankz a lot...i got my confusion cleared thru diz ...
its really proving helpful for me
I don't understand the difference between them still. Gerund or participle? "Working under a tight deadline, I mailed it promptly." "Paul's company makes money byb exporting goods." "My father hates to do the shopping."
i dint get my answer...n i have exam tmrw.!!!....i wanna know that in the sentence--"we met a girl carrying a box"...wats tha gerund AND the participle...??....plzzzz temme....th difference in 1 sentence!
I'm not doing your test.
I always thought that is was the other way around. This was very helpful. Thank you.
Thanks a lot 4 such an awsum explanation...
Hatzzzz off!
thanks
thanks i think i have a bit more clarity of the concepts. will know how much from my test scores:) thanks anyway it wouldnt be your fault if I dont do well:)
thank you! that was actually veryyyy helpful!
i dont get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WHAT??????????????/
dude that was a really good explanation!! hatz off!! :)
Still i am confusing about the difference between Gerund and participle.So please give explanation clearly about those topics
IT WAS HELPFUL.SO THANKS
hey livelonger!jus wanted to say that i was swimming is not a participle......it ia a progressive verb!
it very interesting!
grammer is stoopid.
umm...a lil bit hlpful...no offence...:p....still....a fw more exmles culd hav dne it bttr...no offence
cleared my one doubt but created 1000 more
ammmmmmmmmmmmmm lil bit useful and hlpful
i find it vry difficult to understand it
Let me get this straight...
Gerund:Flying is not impossible anymore.
Participle: The flying birds were shot by the hunter.
Right? ^_^
I don't get any of this stuff, it's confusing!! =@
Am jux as confused as any1 else
Not so difficult
livelonger Level 6 Commenter 5 years ago
Great explanation! So "I like swimming" uses a gerund, while "I was swimming yesterday" uses a participle.