What is a gerund?
When is a verb not a verb? When it is a
gerund! A
gerund is a verb that is
used as a noun in a sentence. It is formed by adding
-ing to the base verb.
Example:
Driving can be stressful when the traffic is heavy.
In this sentence, we take the verb drive and make it a gerund by removing the -e and adding -ing.
What role does the word driving have in the example sentence? I hope you answered "subject!" In this sentence, driving is a thing. (Remember, a noun represents a person, place, thing, idea.)
Not all words with "ing" are gerunds. Read this sentence:
Julia is adding water to the soup.
In this example, the verb adding is NOT a gerund. It does not act as a noun in the sentence. It is still a verb. The subject of this sentence is we, a pronoun. (Remember all subjects must be a noun or pronoun.) In this sentence, adding describes the action of what Julia is doing.
A verb with -ing that still acts as a verb in a sentence is called the present participle.