Learn Gerund and Gerund Phrase

A gerund is a form of a verb that functions as a noun. It looks like a verb but acts like a noun.

Like a participle, a gerund always ends in – ING. But the difference between a gerund and a participle is based on their functions: a participle functions exactly like an adjective whereas a gerund functions exactly like a noun. 

Anything a noun can do, a gerund can do.

Thus a gerund can function in all of these ways.

• Subject
• Direct Object
• A subject of Compliment

Now let us try to spot the gerund in the following examples.

Playing allows my brother to relax.

The first thing we’ve got to do is to look at “ING” word, now ask yourself what the sentence is about – clearly playing. 

Playing is functioning as the subject of the sentence.

Tip to recognize a gerund

When you find an “ING” word in a sentence, substitute another word which is clearly a noun, if the sentence makes sense, then you've got a gerund. 

Let’s try it for the above example. I’m gonna substitute the word vacation in place of playing. Here we go:

Vacation allows my brother to relax.

It is clearly seen that the sentence still makes sense, isn’t it? It means playing is our gerund.

Now let us look at the other examples.

I always enjoy teaching.

You can see through the sentence for “ING” word, here watching is the only “ING” word and it functions as a direct object. 

Is it a gerund? 

You can check it out by replacing the word with any other noun as mentioned above.

Ex: My favorite hobby is blogging.

Here the word blogging functions as a compliment.

Gerund Phrase

A gerund phrase is a gerund and all the words that modify or compliment it.

The words that seem to belong to gerund to help complete its meaning make up a gerund phrase and this whole phrase will function exactly like a noun’s function. 

You can use your substitution principle here as well. For example:

Playing sports keeps us physically fit.

Look for the “ING” word, playing.

Now playing what? Playing sports!

Sport is a modifier which modifies the word playing. Therefore, “Playing sports” is our gerund phrase. The whole phrase functions as a subject. We can substitute a simple noun such as “Cricket”, to see if the sentence yet makes sense. Off course, it does! Thus we’ve proved that it is a gerund phrase.

Ex: I thoroughly enjoyed Peterson’s magnificent batting.

Our gerund is obviously “batting”, but is it a part of the gerund phrase?

We know that gerunds are always nouns; we can see “magnificent” modifies our noun “batting”.

What kind of batting?

Magnificent batting!

And Peterson’s is a possessive adjective also modifies batting – noun. Thus our whole gerund phrase is “Peterson’s magnificent batting”. 

This whole phrase functions as “Direct Object” of the sentence.

As a final check, let us substitute another word such as “golf”, I thoroughly enjoyed golf. Again we’ve proven that this is a gerund phrase.