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Participles and Gerunds

vineetgupta

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29 Oct 2006, 11:10

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Can someone please explain me with examples the difference between the participe(-ing) form and gerunds and what to use when?

I am really confused and always go wrong in Sentence Correction questions based on these...

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u2lover

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29 Oct 2006, 11:18

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participle ends with -ED... studied, confused, etc.

gerund ends with -ING... studying, watching, etc.

gerunds placed with TO BE by their side are VERBS:
I AM STUDYING
so use those to mean an action

gerunds also can be used as a noun and DO NOT imply action:
WATCHING TV distracts you from STUDYING.
so in both cases these are used as a subject/object and don't imply an action -> gerunds

participles usually are the Past form of the verb
I STUDIED
so use this when talk about simple past...
sometimes gmat ?s start with participle in a phrase:
Studied hard for GMAT, I got a good score. -> Studied here describes "I"

hope others add more to this.

g.matter

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31 Oct 2006, 20:36

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Thanks U2lover. This is helpful. I also read your other post on one of the discussions regarding the same.

Can someone shed some light on the difference between and infinitive and a gerund and when either

tennis1ball

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01 Nov 2006, 05:50

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u2lover

Add to the list: participle also includes those that end with "ing".
e.g.
I had a good time, eating a lot of sausages.
here "eating" is a participle.

Of course here, as U2lover explained, the main difference between "ing" participle and gerund is still action or noun.

Both infinitives and gerunds can be used as nouns, but GMAT favors infinitives. however, u should know that gerunds follow "to" as well if "to" is used as a preposition. e..g. "devote yourself to doing sth" or "pay attention to doing sth". definitely not "to do" here.

dwivedys

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01 Nov 2006, 08:57

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tennis_ball

u2lover

Both Participles and Gerunds are called VERBALS - they are based on VERBS and convey ACTION or a "state of being" as opposed to "pure action" as a stem verb (meaning a Pure Verb) ALWAYS but a VERBAL Sometimes does.

I would urge you to follow this link which has an excellent explanation on all three types of VERBALS (Participles, GERUNDS and Infinitives)

If I were to summarize -

Participles are used as adjectives and must necessarily have a Noun to modify.

Gerunds are used as Nouns and can be used as a subject, direct object, objects of prepositions, subject complements etc.

The third category - the infinitives which are created by pre-pending a TO to the BASE VERB Form are easier to recognize but difficult to understand (To understand is used here as an infinitive).

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/ ... rbals.html

u2lover

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01 Nov 2006, 21:15

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nice discussion here :-D

dwivedys, nice link... very useful!!! thanks

dwivedys

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01 Nov 2006, 21:27

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u2lover

nice discussion here :-D

dwivedys, nice link... very useful!!! thanks

Thanks u2girl..anytime..

actually, I have broken my head several times trying (now is this trying a gerund or a participle :-)

) to understand these hideous creatures..

I found this link the best of all that I have seen so far on the internet. I urge everyone to take a look at it.

trivikram

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01 Nov 2006, 21:29

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dwivedys

u2lover

nice discussion here :-D

dwivedys, nice link... very useful!!! thanks

Thanks u2girl..anytime..

actually, I have broken my head several times trying (now is this trying a gerund or a participle

) to understand these hideous creatures..

I found this link the best of all that I have seen so far on the internet. I urge everyone to take a look at it.

Thanks dwivedys!! :-D

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Hi there,

This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.

Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum

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