What Are Gerunds?
Gerunds are words that look like verbs and act like nouns. You can spot them because they will always be a verb + ing acting as a noun. (Words that are made of verbs but don't act like verbs are called verbals. There are two other types of verbals: participles and infinitives.) Example: Swimming is fun.The word swim is a verb. Swimming is a verb with an -ing ending acting as a noun (the subject of this sentence). Phrases These consist of a gerund and the words that modify and complement it.Example: Swimming in the pool is fun.| Gerund | Phrase | | Running is my favorite activity. | Running marathons is my favorite activity. | | I love listening. | I love listening to my favorite band. | | Reading rocks! | Reading books on the porch rocks! |
Their Modifiers and ComplementsRemember what these act as? NOUNS, right? Let's look at that example of the phrase from above. Example: Swimming in the pool is fun.Now, you may have noticed that in the pool is an adverbial prepositional phrase. It is telling us where the swimming happened. But, nouns can only be modified with adjectives, right? Well, remember how we talked about a gerund being a verb form acting as a noun? Even though it's an official noun, it still carries some of the attributes of a verb. The verb part allows it to take adverbial modifiers just like any other verb- even though it's acting as a noun. (By the way, it can still take adjectival modifiers - just like other nouns.) They can even take complements (like direct objects), just like verbs can. And, this one is kind of strange, they can sort of take subjects. Only the subjects will never be in the subject case (he, she, I). They will always be possessive (his, her, my). | In a Sentence | Acting As... | Its Complement/Modifier | | Diagramming sentences is fun! | Subject | Sentences is the direct object of diagramming. | | I love listening to my favorite band. | Direct Object | To my favorite band is a prepositional phrase modifying listening. | | Mary's loud eating really bothers me! | Subject | Mary's is the "subject" of eating
Loud is an adverb modifying eating. |
Basic DiagrammingThey sit on little steps when you diagram them. The verb part goes on the top part of the step, and on the -ing goes on the bottom part of the step.
After that, you diagram the modifiers and complements just as you would with any other word. Here is an example with a direct object.
Test your crazy diagramming skills with these exercises.
Finished Gerunds? Go Back to Phrases. Back to English Grammar Home Page
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