GERUND (FIVETH MATERIAL)
A.
Gerund
1. A
gerund is a noun made from a verb by adding "-ing." The gerund form
of the verb "read" is "reading." You can use a gerund as
the subject, the complement, or the object of a sentence.
Examples:
·
Reading helps you learn English. subject of sentence
·
Her favorite hobby is reading.
complement of sentence
·
I enjoy reading. object of
sentence
Gerunds
can be made negative by adding "not."
Examples:
·
He enjoys not working.
·
The best thing for your health is not
smoking.
2.
Infinitives are the "to" form of the verb. The infinitive form of
"learn" is "to learn." You can also use an infinitive as
the subject, the complement, or the object of a sentence.
Examples:
·
To learn is important. subject of sentence
·
The most important thing is to
learn. complement of sentence
·
He wants to learn. object
of sentence
Infinitives
can be made negative by adding "not."
Examples:
·
I decided not to go.
·
The most important thing is not
to give up.
3. Both
gerunds and infinitives can be used as the subject or the complement of a
sentence. However, as subjects or complements, gerunds usually sound more like
normal, spoken English, whereas infinitives sound more abstract. In the
following sentences, gerunds sound more natural and would be more common in
everyday English. Infinitives emphasize the possibility or potential for
something and sound more philosophical. If this sounds confusing, just remember
that 90% of the time, you will use a gerund as the subject or complement of a
sentence.
Examples:
·
Learning is important. normal subject
·
To learn is important. abstract subject - less common
·
The most important thing is learning.
normal complement
·
The most important thing is to
learn. abstract complement - less common
4. As the
object of a sentence, it is more difficult to choose between a gerund or an
infinitive. In such situations, gerunds and infinitives are not normally
interchangeable. Usually, the main verb in the sentence determines whether you
use a gerund or an infinitive.
Examples:
·
He enjoys swimming. "Enjoy"
requires a gerund.
·
He wants to swim. "Want"
requires an infinitive.
Examples:
·
She suggested going to
a movie.
·
Mary keeps talking
about her problems.
Examples:
·
She wants to go to a
movie.
·
Mary needs to talk
about her problems.
B. Formation
A gerund
has four forms — two for the active voice and two for the passive:[2]
|
Active
|
Passive
|
|
Present or Continuous
|
Loving
|
Being loved
|
|
Perfect
|
Having loved
|
Having been loved
|
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 (although in many such cases the word could equally
be analyzed as a pure verbal noun).
·
Swimming is fun. (gerund as subject of the sentence)
·
Eating
biscuits in front of the television
is one way to relax. (gerund phrase as subject)
·
Do you fancy going out?
(gerund phrase as direct object)
·
On being elected president,
he moved with his family to the capital. (gerund phrase as complement of a preposition)
·
Being
deceived can make someone feel angry.
(passive)
·
Having
read the book once before makes me
more prepared. (perfect)
Distinction from other uses of the -ing form
Gerunds
are distinguished grammatically from other uses of a verb's -ing form:
the present participle (which is a non-finite verb form like the gerund, but is adjectival or adverbial in
function), and the pure verbal noun or deverbal noun.
The
distinction between gerund and present participle is illustrated in the
following sentences:
·
John suggested asking Bill. (asking
Bill is the object of the verb, i.e. a noun, so asking is a gerund)
·
I heard John asking Bill. (asking
Bill is adjectival, describing John, so asking is a participle)
The
distinction between the gerund and the pure verbal (deverbal) noun is that the
gerund itself behaves as a verb, forming a verb phrase which is then used as a
noun, whereas the pure noun does not in any way behave grammatically as a verb.[3]
This is illustrated in the following examples:
·
I like playing football. (playing
takes an object, so is a gerund)
·
Her playing of the Bach
fugues was inspiring. (playing takes a prepositional phrase rather than
an object; not a gerund)
For more
details and examples of the distinctions introduced here, see -ing: uses.
Gerunds with a specified subject
A gerund
cannot take a grammatical subject as a finite verb does. (The -ing verb form can take
a subject in nominative absolute constructions such as The day being over, ..., but
here it is a present participle rather than a gerund.) Normally the subject of
the gerund is considered unspecified, or is understood to be the same as the
subject of the main clause: in a sentence like "Meg likes eating
apricots", the subject of eating is understood to be the same as
the subject of the main clause, namely Meg – what Meg likes is a situation
where she herself is eating apricots (see also raising verb). However in other cases it is necessary to specify
explicitly who or what is to be understood as the subject of the gerund.
·
We enjoyed their singing.
(i.e. the singing that was done by them)
·
The cat's licking the cream was not generally appreciated. (i.e. the
licking that was done by the cat)
·
We were delighted at Paul's
being awarded the prize. (i.e. the awarding of the prize to Paul)
The above
construction is common in formal English; however in informal English it is
often more usual to use just the noun or noun phrase (in the objective case, in the case of personal pronouns) to indicate the subject,
without any possessive marker.
·
We enjoyed them singing.
·
The cat licking the cream was not generally appreciated.
·
We were delighted at Paul
being awarded the prize.
The above
usage, though common, is criticized by some prescriptivists, since it
apparently places two noun phrases (the agent and the gerund clause) together
without any indication of their syntactic relation. It is compared with a
superficially identical construction in which the -ing form is a present participle, and it is entirely appropriate for it to be preceded by a
noun phrase, since the participial clause can be taken to qualify that noun
phrase:
·
I saw the cat licking the cream. (i.e.
I saw the cat, and the cat was licking the cream)
However
others say that it is entirely acceptable to express the subject of the gerund
with just the noun or the noun phrase in the nominative case or in the objective case, since the gerund is not a deverbal noun, but a verbal noun, i.e., a normal verb in a dependent noun clause.
The use of
a non-possessive noun to precede a gerund is said to arise as a result of
confusion with the above usage with a participle, and is thus sometimes called fused
participle[4] or geriple.[5]
This construction represents common informal usage with gerunds; however, 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. (shouting is a gerund, the shouting startled the student)
·
The teacher shouting startled the
student. (shouting can be interpreted as a participle, qualifying the
teacher; the teacher startled the student by shouting)
·
I don't like Jim's drinking wine. (I
don't like the drinking)
·
I don't like Jim drinking wine. (I
don't like Jim when he is drinking wine)
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" (rather than
the prescriptively correct "There is no chance of the snow's
falling").
Verb patterns with the gerund
Verbs that
are often followed by a gerund include admit, adore, anticipate, appreciate,
avoid, carry on, consider, contemplate, delay, deny, describe, detest, dislike,
enjoy, escape, fancy, feel, finish, give, hear, imagine, include, justify,
listen to, mention, mind, miss, notice, observe, perceive, postpone, practice,
quit, recall, report, resent, resume, risk, see, sense, sleep, stop, suggest,
tolerate and watch. Additionally, prepositions are often followed by a gerund.
For
example:
·
I will
never quit smoking.
·
We
postponed making any decision.
·
After two
years of analyzing, we finally made a decision.
·
We heard
whispering.
·
They
denied having avoided me.
·
He talked
me into coming to the party.
·
They
frightened her out of voicing her opinion.
Verbs followed by a gerund or a to-infinitive
With little change in meaning
advise,
recommend, forbid:
These are
followed by a to-infinitive when there is an object as well, but by a
gerund otherwise.
·
The police
advised us not to enter the building, for a murder had occurred. (Us is the object of advised.)
·
The police
advised against our entering the building.
(Our is used for the gerund entering.)
consider,
contemplate, recommend:
These
verbs are followed by a to-infinitive only in the passive or with an object pronoun.
·
People
consider her to be the best.
– She is considered to be the best.
·
I am
considering sleeping over, if you do not mind.
begin,
continue, start; hate, like, love, prefer:
With would,
the verbs hate, like, love, and prefer are usually followed by
the to-infinitive.
·
I would
like to work there. (more usual than working)
When
talking about sports, there is usually a difference in meaning between the infinitive
and gerund (see the next section).
With a change in meaning
like,
love, prefer:
In some
contexts, following these verbs with a to-infinitive when the subject of
the first verb is the subject of the second verb provides more clarity than a
gerund.
·
I like to
box. (I enjoy doing it myself.)
·
I like
boxing. (Either I enjoy watching it, I
enjoy doing it myself, or the idea of boxing is otherwise appealing.)
·
I do not
like gambling, but I do like to gamble."
dread,
hate, cannot bear:
These
verbs are followed by a to-infinitive when talking subjunctively (often
when using to think), but by a gerund when talking about general
dislikes.
·
I dread /
hate to think what she will do.
·
I dread /
hate seeing him.
·
I cannot
bear to see you suffer like this.
(You are suffering now.)
·
I cannot
bear being pushed around in crowds.
(I never like that.)
forget,
remember:
When these
have meanings that are used to talk about the future from the given time, the to-infinitive
is used, but when looking back in time, the gerund.
·
She forgot
to tell me her plans. (She did not tell me, although she
should have.)
·
She forgot
telling me her plans. (She told me, but then forgot
having done so.)
·
I
remembered to go to work. (I
remembered that I needed to go to work.)
·
I
remembered going to work. (I
remembered that I went to work.)
go
on:
·
After
winning the semi-finals, he went on to play in the finals. (He completed the semi-finals and later played in the
finals.)
·
He went on
giggling, not having noticed the teacher enter. (He continued doing so.)
mean:
·
I did not
mean to scare you off. (I did
not intend to scare you off.)
·
Taking a
new job in the city meant leaving behind her familiar surroundings. (If she took the job, she would have to leave behind her
familiar surroundings.)
regret:
·
We regret
to inform you that you have failed your exam.
(polite or formal form of apology)
·
I very
much regret saying what I said.
(I wish that I had not said that.)
try:
When a to-infinitive
is used, the subject is shown to make an effort at something, attempt or
endeavor to do something. If a gerund is used, the subject is shown to attempt
to do something in testing to see what might happen.
·
Please try
to remember to post my letter.
·
I have
tried being stern, but to no avail.
stop,
quit:
When the
infinitive is used after 'stop' or 'quit', it means that the subject stops one
activity and starts the activity indicated by the infinitive. If the gerund is
used, it means that the subject stops the activity indicated by the gerund.
·
She
stopped to smell the flowers.
·
She
stopped smelling the flowers.
Or more
concisely:
·
She
stopped walking to smell the flowers.
·
He quit
working there to travel abroad.
C.
Exercise
Put the verb into either the gerund
(-ing) or the infinitive (with 'to'):
Comparative adjective dan comparative adverb digunakan untuk
membandingkan dua hal. Kebanyakannya adjective atau adverb satu
suku kata ditambahkan akhiran -er, sedangkan dua suku kata atau lebih diawali
dengan kata more. Khusus untuk dua suku kata adjective dengan
akhiran -y, akhiran tersebut dihilangkan lalu ditambahkan -ier. Ketika berada
di dalam kalimat, degree of comparison ini biasanya ditemani kata than.
