What is a gerund and why do you need to know? Maybe it would be better to answer the second part of the question first so that you have some motivation to identify gerunds. If you are able to pick the gerund(s) out in your sentence, you will avoid a grammar gaffe that often goes unnoticed even by seasoned editors. Is your curiosity at least somewhat piqued?<\/p>\n
Gerunds, also called verbal nouns, are formed when verbs have -ing<\/em> added to them and are used as nouns.<\/p>\n Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n Walking<\/u> is great exercise.<\/em><\/p>\n Hiking<\/u> up that steep mountain seems impossible.<\/em><\/p>\n Talking<\/u> more about this will not change my mind.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Note that in each of the examples above, the -ing<\/em> word\u2014the gerund\u2014acted as the subject of the sentence.<\/p>\n Gerunds, like other nouns, may also act as direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of the preposition.<\/p>\n Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n We like talking<\/u> on the phone every night.<\/em> (direct object)<\/p>\n I give him credit for talking<\/u>.<\/em> (object of the preposition for<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is helpful to recognize gerunds because if a noun or pronoun precedes a gerund, it is usually best to use the possessive form of that noun or pronoun.<\/p>\n Correct:<\/strong> My running<\/u> ahead bothered him.<\/em> Correct:<\/strong> Their separating<\/u> does not mean they won’t continue to be good parents to their three children.<\/em> Examples:<\/strong><\/p>\n Alex’s skating<\/u> was a joy to behold.<\/em><\/p>\n Ben’s walking<\/u> improved once his ankle healed.<\/em><\/p>\n The girl’s dancing<\/u> won her a trip to Hawaii.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In certain cases, a writer may\u00a0wish to emphasize the actor more than the action. This would be a style choice specific to a writer’s intent.<\/p>\n Emphasis gerund (action):<\/strong> What do you think of his<\/u> deciding<\/u> to go?<\/em><\/p>\n Emphasis actor:<\/strong> What do you think of him<\/u> deciding<\/u> to go?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n We can see the nuance being conveyed by changing the possessive adjective to an objective pronoun before the gerund. While this may be included at times for effect, standard formal usage will most often apply the possessive form before gerunds.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Identify the gerund in each sentence. If there is a noun or pronoun preceding it, make the noun or pronoun possessive.<\/p>\n 1. Working efficiently is required in the restaurant business.<\/p>\n 2. She won three gold medals for swimming.<\/p>\n 3. The devaluing of the dollar continued throughout the summer.<\/p>\n 4. Don’t criticize me trying to get his attention.<\/p>\n 5. I’d like to know Alicia thinking about the issue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1. Working<\/strong> efficiently is required in the restaurant business.<\/p>\n 2. She won three gold medals for swimming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 3. The devaluing<\/strong> of the dollar continued throughout the summer.<\/p>\n 4. Don’t criticize my<\/em> trying<\/strong> to get his attention.<\/p>\n 5. I’d like to know Alicia’s<\/em> thinking<\/strong> about the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is a gerund and why do you need to know? Maybe it would be better to answer the second part of the question first so that you have some motivation to identify gerunds. If you are able to pick the gerund(s) out in your sentence, you will avoid a grammar gaffe that often goes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,34,33,8,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-definitions","category-possessives","category-prepositions","category-pronouns","category-verbs"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6962,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions\/6962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIncorrect:<\/strong> Me running<\/u> ahead bothered him.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nIncorrect:<\/strong> Them separating<\/u> does not mean they won’t continue to be good parents to their three children.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nPop Quiz<\/h2>\n
Pop Quiz Answers<\/h3>\n