Gerund

In linguistics, a gerund is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin gerundium, meaning "which is to be carried out". In English, the gerund has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable by an adverb and being able to take a direct object. The term "-ing form" is often used in English to refer to the gerund specifically. Traditional grammar makes a distinction within -ing forms between present participles and gerunds, a distinction that is not observed in such modern grammars as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

Traditional use

The Latin gerund, in a restricted set of syntactic contexts, denotes the sense of the verb in isolation after certain prepositions, and in certain uses of the genitive, dative, and ablative cases. It is very rarely combined with a dependent sentence element such as an object. To express such concepts, the construction with the adjectival gerundive is preferred. By contrast, the term gerund has been used in the grammatical description of other languages to label verbal nouns used in a wide range of syntactic contexts and with a full range of clause elements.
Thus, English grammar uses gerund to mean an -ing form used in non-finite clauses such as playing on computers. This is not a normal use for a Latin gerund. Moreover, the clause may function within a sentence as subject or object, which is impossible for a Latin gerund.

Playing on computers is fun.
I like playing on computers

The contrast with the Latin gerund is also clear when the clause consists of a single word.

Computing is fun.
I like computing

Latin never uses the gerund in this way, but instead uses the infinitive.
Traditional English grammar distinguishes non-finite clauses used as above from adverbial use, adjective-like modification of nouns, and use in finite progressive (continuous) forms

Playing on computers, they whiled the day away.
The boys playing on computers are my nephews.
They are always playing on computers.

In these uses playing is traditionally labelled a participle.
Traditional grammar also distinguishes -ing forms with exclusively noun properties as in
The objection to the term gerund in English grammar is that -ing forms are frequently used in ways that do not conform to the clear-cut three-way distinction made by traditional grammar into gerunds, participles and nouns.

Latin gerund

Form

The Latin gerund is a form of the verb. It is composed of:

the infectum stem
a vowel appropriate to the verb class or conjugation of the verb
the suffix -nd-
a nominal inflectional ending

For example,

laud-	-a-	-nd-	-um, -ī, -ō	First conjugation	laudandum	'the act of praising'
mon-	-e-	-nd-	-um, -ī, -ō	Second conjugation	monendum	'the act of warning'
leg-	-e-	-nd-	-um, -ī, -ō	Third conjugation	legendum	'the act of reading'
capi-	-e-	-nd-	-um, -ī, -ō	Third conjugation	capiendum	'the act of taking'
audi-	-e-	-nd-	-um, -ī, -ō	Fourth conjugation	audiendum	'the act of hearing'

Related gerundive forms are composed in a similar way with adjectival inflexional endings.

Function

The four inflections are used for a limited range of grammatical functions

Case	Function	Example	Translation	Notes
Nominative	Subject	no example		infinitive used
Accusative	Object	no example		infinitive used
Accusative	After preposition	canes alere ad venandum	'to rear dogs for hunting'	after ad, in, ob and occasionally other prepositions
Genitive	Modifying abstract noun	pugnandi tempus	'time for fighting'	nouns include occasio, tempus, causa, gratia
Dative	Expressing purpose	auscultando operam dare	'apply effort to listening'	after verbs, e.g., studeo, operam dare and adjectives, e.g., natus, optimus
Ablative	Instrumental	pugnando cepimus	'we took by fighting'	became undistinguishable from participle use, thus providing the gerundio forms in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, which are used instead of forms derived from Latin present participles

These functions could be fulfilled by other abstract nouns derived from verbs such as vēnātiō 'hunting'. Gerunds are distinct in two ways.

Every Latin verb can regularly form a gerund
A gerund may function syntactically as the head of a verb phrase: for instance, the gerund of a transitive verb may take a direct object in the accusative case, e.g., ad discernendum vocis verbi figuras 'for discerning figures of speech', hominem investigando opera dabo 'I will devote effort to investigating the man'.

When people first wrote grammars of languages such as English, and based them on works of Latin grammar, they adopted the term gerund to label non-finite verb forms with these two properties.

Gerunds in various languages

Meanings of the term gerund as used in relation to various languages are listed below.

Latin and Romance

Latin has the non-finite gerundium, formed with -andum, -endum and noun inflexions. It is syntactically equivalent to a noun, except in the nominative and accusative cases, which use the infinitive. In particular the ablative case forms were used adverbially. Latin grammars written in English use the form gerund. See the section above for further detail.
Several Romance languages have inherited the form, but without case inflections. They use it primarily in an adverbial function, comparably to the Latin ablative use. The same form may be used in an adjectival function and to express progressive aspect meaning. These languages do not use the term present participle, since it refers to a different form. Grammars of these languages written in English may use the form gerund.

Germanic

In the earliest stages of the West Germanic languages, the infinitive was inflected after a preposition. These dative and, more rarely, genitive case forms are sometimes called gerundium or gerund or West Germanic gerund.

Slavic

In descriptions of Slavic languages, the term gerund refers to verbal forms that are also frequently referred to as verbal adverb, adverbial participle, or deepričastie. These forms describe circumstances, actions concurrent or immediately preceding those in the predicate. Morphologically they are uninflected, and syntactically they have an adverbial function, and thus generally bear resemblance to Romance gerunds such as those found in Italian, rather than to noun-like gerunds in English or Latin.

In Bulgarian, it translates the term деепричастие. It refers to the verb noun formed by adding the suffix -йки to the verb form, like ходи – ходейки
In Macedonian, it refers to the verb noun formed by adding the suffix -јќи to the verb form, like in јаде — јадејќи.
In Russian, it translates the term деепричастие an adverbial participle formed with the suffixes -я '' Present; -в or -вши Past.
In Serbo-Croatian, it was used to refer to what are now classified as participles / verbal adverbs: present and past. Modern grammars rarely use the term.

Additionally, some linguists use the term to refer to verbal nouns, historically formed with the suffix, such as Serbo-Croatian glȅdānje or Polish chodzenie.

Other

In Arabic, it refers to the verb's action noun, known as the masdar form. This form ends in a tanwin and is generally the equivalent of the -ing ending in English.
In Hebrew, it refers either to the verb's action noun, or to the part of the infinitive following the infinitival prefix.
In Hungarian, it has no equivalent category in the classical sense, and is categorized under noun. It may practically refer to the verbal noun, usually formed by appending a suffix. For additional information, see the Hungarian article on its equivalent for infinitives. Common suffixes are -ás, -és, but verbal nouns are occasionally formed by removing the suffix from the verb.
In Irish it is formed by adding ag + the verbal noun. For example, ag ''scríobh.
In Japanese, there are three main grammatical structures with gerund-like functions: first, turning verbs into nouns is achieved, depending on the type of verb and other factors, by using either the conjunctive form or the nominalization particles no and koto. Lastly, the continuous and progressive aspect of a verb can be realized by employing the perfective form plus the auxiliary verb iru.
In Korean, it refers to the word '것' modified by the adjective form of the verb.
In Maldivian (Dhivehi), the gerund is the root form of the verb, for example, ނެށުން, meaning "dancing".
In Persian, it refers to the verb's action noun, known as the ism-masdar form.
In Turkish, it refers to a large number of verb endings subject to vowel harmony and sometimes used in conjunction with postpositions. Called zarf-fiil, bağ-fiil, ulaç or gerundium and defined as "a verb used as an adverb in a sentence", the Turkish gerund may also constitute part of an clause.

In other languages, it may refer to almost any non-finite verb form; however, it most often refers to an action noun, by analogy with its use as applied to Latin.

Gerunds in English

In traditional grammars of English, the term gerund labels an important use of the form of the verb ending in -ing. Other important uses are termed
participle, and as a pure verbal noun.
An -ing form is termed gerund when it behaves as a verb within a clause ; but the resulting clause as a whole functions as a noun within the larger sentence.
For example, consider the sentence "Eating this cake is easy." Here, the gerund is the verb eating, which takes an object this cake. The entire clause eating this cake is then used as a noun, which in this case serves as the subject of the larger sentence.
An item such as eating this cake in the foregoing example is an example of a non-finite verb phrase; however, because phrases of this type do not require a subject, it is also a complete clause. A gerund clause such as this is one of the types of non-finite clause. The structure may be represented as follows:

	Subject	Verb	Complement
STRUCTURE OF SENTENCE	Eating this cake	is	easy
		Verb	Object
STRUCTURE OF NON-FINITE CLAUSE		eating	this cake

Formation

Non-finite verb forms ending in -ing, whether termed gerund or participle may be marked like finite forms as Continuous or Non-continuous, Perfect or Non-perfect, Active or Passive. Thus, traditional grammars have represented the gerund as having
four forms two for the active voice and two for the passive:

	Active	Passive
Present or Continuous	Loving	Being loved
Perfect	Having loved	Having been loved

The same forms are available when the term participle is used.

Examples of use

The following sentences illustrate some uses of gerund clauses, showing how such a clause serves as a noun within the larger sentence. In some cases, the clause consists of just the gerund.Swimming is fun.

I like swimming.
I never gave swimming all that much effort. Swimming in the pool is one way to relax.
Do you fancy swimming in the pool?
After swimming in the pool, he ate his lunch.

Using gerunds of the appropriate auxiliary verbs, one can form gerund clauses that express perfect aspect and passive voice:Being deceived can make someone feel angry. Having read the book once before makes me more prepared.

He is ashamed of having been gambling all night.

For more detail on when it is appropriate to use a gerund, see Verb patterns classified as gerund use below, and also.

Distinction from other uses of the ''-ing'' form

In traditional grammars, gerunds are distinguished from other uses of a verb's -ing form: the present participle, and the pure verbal noun or deverbal noun.
The distinction between gerund and present participles is not recognised in modern reference grammars, since many uses are ambiguous.

Roles of "gerund" clauses in a sentence

Non finite -ing clauses may have the following roles in a sentence:
In traditional grammars, the term gerund is not used for roles F, G, and H.
Thus

1. John suggested asking* Bill.*	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
		Subject		Verb		Object	-	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF SENTENCE		John		suggested		asking Bill		Role D object — traditionally asking is a "gerund"	-	-
						Verb	Object	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF NON-FINITE CLAUSE						asking	Bill	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2. I heard John asking* Bill.*	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
		Subject		Verb		Object	-	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF SENTENCE		I		heard		John asking Bill		Role G adverbial — traditionally asking is a "participle"	-	-
					Subject	Verb	Object	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF NON-FINITE CLAUSE					John	asking	Bill	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3. Playing football is enjoyable	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
		Subject		Verb		Complement	-	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF SENTENCE		Playing football		is		enjoyable		Role A subject — traditionally playing is a "gerund"	-	-
		Verb	Object	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF NON-FINITE CLAUSE		playing	football	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4. Her playing* of the Bach fugues was inspiring.*	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
		Subject		Verb		Complement	-	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF SENTENCE		Her playing of the Bach fugues		was		inspiring
	Possessive	Head	Postmodifier	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
STRUCTURE OF NOUN PHRASE	Her	playing	of the Bach fugues					Noun phrase, not clause — playing is a verbal noun	-	-

For more details and examples, see -ing: uses.

"Gerund" clauses with a specified subject

In traditional grammars, a grammatical subject has been defined in such a way that it occurs only in finite clauses, where it is liable to "agree" with the "number" of the finite verb form. Nevertheless, non-finite clauses imply a "doer" of the verb, even if that doer is indefinite "someone or something". For example,We enjoy singing. Licking the cream was a special treat Being awarded the prize is a great honour
Often the "doer" is clearly signalledWe enjoyed singing yesterday The cat responded by licking the cream His heart is set on being awarded the prize Meg likes eating apricots
However, the "doer" may not be indefinite or already expressed in the sentence. Rather it must be overtly specified, typically in a position immediately before the non-finite verbWe enjoyed them singing.The cat licking the cream was not generally appreciated.We were delighted at Paul being awarded the prize.
The "doer" expression is not the grammatical subject of a finite clause, so objective them is used rather than subjective they.
Traditional grammarians may object to the term subject for these "doers". And prescriptive grammarians go further, objecting to the use of forms more appropriate to the subjects of finite clauses. The argument is that this results in two noun expressions with no grammatical connection. They prefer to express the "doer" by a possessive form, such as used with ordinary nouns:We enjoyed their singing. The cat's licking the cream was not generally appreciated. We were delighted at Paul's being awarded the prize.
Nonetheless, the possessive construction with -ing clauses is very rare in present-day English. Works of fiction show a moderate frequency, but the construction is highly infrequent in other types of text.
Prescriptivists do not object when the non-finite clause modifies a noun phraseI saw the cat licking the cream.
The sense of the cat as notional subject of licking is disregarded. Rather they see the cat as exclusively the object of I saw. The modifying phrase licking the cream is therefore described as a participle use.
Henry Fowler claims that the use of a non-possessive noun to precede a gerund arose from confusing the above usage with a participle, and should thus be called fused participle or geriple.
It has been argued that if the prescriptive rule is followed, the difference between the two forms may be used to make a slight distinction in meaning:

The teacher's shouting startled the student.
The teacher shouting startled the student.
I don't like Jim's drinking wine.
I don't like Jim drinking wine.

However, Quirk et al. show that the range of senses of -ing forms with possessive and non-possessive subjects is far more diverse and nuanced:
These sentences exemplify a spectrum of senses from more noun-like to more verb-like. At the extremes of the spectrum they place

at the noun end :

and at the verb end :

In some cases, particularly with a non-personal subject, the use of the possessive before a gerund may be considered redundant even in quite a formal register. For example, "There is no chance of the snow falling".

Verb patterns classified as "gerund" use

The term gerund describes certain uses of -ing clauses as 'complementation' of individual English verbs, that is to say the choice of class that are allowable after that word.
The principal choices of clauses are

The term gerund is applied to clauses similar to and .
In and coming is related to the participle use as an adverbial.
in and the verbs kept and coming refer to the same event. Coming is related to the progressive aspect use in She is coming.
Verbs such as start and stop, although similar to verbs like keep, are generally classified with verbs like remember. Therefore, She started coming is termed a gerund use.
The proposed test of passivisation to distinguish gerund use after remember from participle use after keep fails with sentences like .
The proposed test of possible possessive subject successfully distinguishes from .

Verbs followed by "gerund" pattern

Historically, the -ing suffix was attached to a limited number of verbs to form abstract nouns, which were used as the object of verbs such as like. The use was extended in various ways: the suffix became attachable to all verbs; the nouns acquired verb-like characteristics; the range of verbs allowed to introduce the form spread by analogy first to other verbs expressing emotion, then by analogy to other semantic groups of verbs associated with abstract noun objects; finally the use spread from verbs taking one-word objects to other semantically related groups verbs.
The present-day result of these developments is that the verbs followed by -ing forms tend to fall into semantic classes. The following groups have been derived from analysis of the most common verbs in the COBUILD data bank:

Pattern 4a: ''I remember seeing her come''

Pattern 5a: ''She kept coming''

In addition, the COBUILD team identifies four groups of verbs followed by -ing forms that are hard to class as objects. In the verb + -ing object construction the action or state expressed by the verb can be separated from the action or state expressed by the -ing form. In the following groups, the senses are inseparable, jointly expressing a single complex action or state. Some grammarians do not recognise all these patterns as gerund use.

Pattern 4b: ''I remember her coming''

Verbs with this pattern do not normally allow the 'subject' of the -ing clause to be used in an equivalent passive construction such as *She is remembered coming.

The COBUILD Guide analyses her coming as the single object of I remember.
Many of the verbs that allow pattern 4a also allow this pattern.

Pattern 5b: ''We kept her coming''

In contrast to Pattern 4b, these verbs allow the 'subject' of the -ing clauses to be used in an equivalent passive construction such as She was kept coming.

The COBUILD guide analyses her coming as a string of two objects of We kept:– her and coming.

Pattern 6a: ''She ended up coming''

These verbs refer to starting, spending or ending time.

The following -ing form is an adverbial, traditionally classed as a participle rather than a gerund.

Pattern 6b: ''She wasted time coming''

These verbs also relate to time. The object generally expresses this concept.

However, the object of busy or occupy must be a reflexive pronoun, e.g., She busied herself coming.

The following -ing form is an adverbial, generally classed as a participle rather than a gerund.

Verbs followed by either "gerund" or ''to''-infinitive pattern

Like the -ing suffix, the to-infinitive spread historically from a narrow original use, a prepositional phrase referring to future time. Like the -ing form it spread to all English verbs and to form non-finite clauses. Like the -ing form, it spread by analogy to use with words of similar meaning.
A number of verbs now belong in more than one class in their choice of 'complementation'.

Patterns 4a and 3a: ''I remember seeing her come'' and ''She remembered to come''

Patterns 4a, 4b, 3a and 3b: ''I remember coming'', ''She remembered to come'', ''I remember her coming'' and ''I reminded her to come''

Patterns 4a and 3b: ''I remember coming'' and ''I reminded her to come''

Patterns 4b and 3b: ''I remember her coming'' and ''I reminded her to come''

Patterns 5a and 3a: ''She kept coming'' and ''She remembered to come''

Verbs followed by either "gerund" or bare infinitive pattern

Patterns 4b and 2: ''I remember her coming'' and ''I saw her come''

Borrowings of English ''-ing'' forms in other languages

English verb forms ending in -ing are sometimes borrowed into other languages. In some cases, they become pseudo-anglicisms, taking on new meanings or uses not found in English. For instance, camping means "campsite" in many languages, while parking often means a car park. Both these words are treated as nouns, with none of the features of the gerund in English. For more details and examples, see -ing words in other languages.