Gerund Vs Present Participle
Gerund and present participle are formed from the same formation, that is V + ING. But they are different in their use.
According to the Portland English Language Academy, a gerund acts like a verb or adjective. The gerund acts like a verb or adjective. The Gerund can be positioned as a subject or object in a sentence, while the present participle is positioned as a predicate or an adjective to describe a noun.
There are some distinctions regarding the gerund and the present participle :
Both a gerund and a present participle come from a verb, and both end in –ing. However, each has a different function. A gerund acts like a noun while a present participle acts like a verb or adjective.
A. GERUND
·
Snowboarding is a winter sport. [snowboarding
= subject]
·
I
love snowboarding. [snowboarding
= object ]
·
I
am excited by snowboarding. [snowboarding
= object of a preposition]
·
One
popular sport is snowboarding. [snowboarding
= subject complement]
B. PRESENT PARTICIPLE
- Right now, the athlete is snowboarding, (is snowboarding = present continuous)
- He was snowboarding yesterday afternoon. (was snowboarding = past continuous)
Conclusion of the difference
- Gerunds can only function as nouns, while present participles function as verbs and also adjective
- if you find the verb + ing after to be, then it is a present participle that function as verb.
- If you find a verb + ing after to be and it functions as a subjective complement or a subject somplement, it is a gerund.
- If you find a verb + ing, that comes before an noun, for example : a drawing book, then the verb + ing is a present participle that functions as adjective, not gerund.
- if you find verb + ing at the beginning of a sentence that functions a subject, for example : Running is her hobby. Then the verb + ing is a gerund.
- If you find verb +ing after preposition, for example : I will watch TV before eating. So the verb +ing is a gerund as object of preposition
- If you fid the verb + ing after the possessive adjective, it is a gerund
