gmatpunjabi wrote:
Whats the difference between a Gerund and a Present Participle? THey both have the "-ing" form. Any help woud be appreciated!!
Manhattan SC explains that Gerunds are "-ing verb forms used as nouns". Also, Manhattan says that there are two types of Gerund Phrases -
Simple Gerund Phrases and
Complex Gerund Phrases. The distinction between them is following:
Example - Simple gerund phrase:
Tracking satellites accurately is important for the space agency. - Simple gerund phrases are "Nouns on the Outside, Verbs on the Inside." in other words, if you look inside the gerund phrase (tracking satellites accurately), you could simple turn this gerund phrase into a working verb if you add
I AM tracking satellites accurately.
Example - Complex gerund phrase:
The accurate tracking of satellites is important for the space agency. - Complex gerund phrases are "Nouns Through and Through." you can not turn these gerund phrases into working verbs, even if you look inside the phrase (the accurate tracking of satellites). complex gerund phrases often have articles (the, a, an) in front of them, or Of-prepositional phrase, so that you can not turn them into a working verb if you look inside the phrase itself.
you need to know distinction between them because when you try to use Parallelism topic on GMAT, you have to make sure that simple gerund phrases are parallel to only simple gerund phrases; you can't make simple gerund phrase parallel to complex gerund phrase! Example -
I enjoyed drinking the water AND the wine tasting. "drinking water" is simple gerund phrase (you can turn it into a working verb) and "wine tasting" can not be turned into a working verb even if you add noun to this phrase (I wine tasting - does not make any sense).
only complex gerund phrases {NOT simple gerund phrases} can be made parallel to action nouns, such as withdrawal, reduction (these nouns are formed from the verbs withdraw and reduce).
on the other hand, we have another "-ing verb form" called present participle which is formed from -ing verb form. example could be
"shining star". shining is derived from verb "shine", but here it acts as an adjective which defines the star. when you see "-ing verb form" which acts as an adjective in the sentence, you can make this "-ing verb form" parallel to another adjective, or even past participle, which should describe the noun as well.
Present Participle Example
Only a few feet wide BUTspanning a continent, the railroad changed history. - Here we see "-ing verb form", but it should not be confused to Gerund phrases explained above, which act as nouns in the sentence. here, both "wide" and "spanning" describe the railroad (the noun in the sentence), so they can be parallel.
so, looking from Parallelism perspective, the distinction from Gerund and Present Participle can be seen this way:
Simple gerund phrases should be parallel to ONLY simple gerund phrases.
Complex gerund phrases can be parallel to action nouns, even action nouns don't have "-ing verb form".
Present Participle has "-ing verb form", but it can be parallel to adjective since both act as modifier to a noun in the sentence.
Hope this might help you see the distinction between Gerund and Present Participle from "Parallelism point of view".