Gerund - Grammar Exercises

Grammar exercises and activities for teaching the Gerund to English language learners. Some exercises include answer keys.

I. Define the forms of the gerund .

1. Skiing is my favourite sport. 
2. I remember his telling me about his coat. 
3. I remember having seen this match. 
4. Before taking up swimming she had been very fond of playing basketball. 
5. The football player was punished for having pushed the centre forward. 
6. The young high jumper was very proud of being praised. 
7. I did not know you had stopped rooting for our team. 
8. I remember having been told about this match.

Participle Examples in Proverbs and Quotations

1. Point out participle I and participle II in the following proverbs.

1. United we stand, divided we fall.
2. Better untaught than ill taught.
3. One volunteer is worth two pressed men.
4. Fear the Greeks bearing gifts.
5. Stolen sweets are sweetest.
6. Forbidden fruit is sweetest.
7. A forced kindness deserves no thanks.
8. The rotten apple injures its neighbours.
9. The beaten road is the safest.
10. A watched pot never boils.

Nominative Absolute Participle Construction

The Nominative Absolute Construction is a construction in which the participle  stands in predicative relation to a noun in the Common Case or a pronoun in the Nominative Case; the noun or pronoun is not the subject of the sentence.

Key example: 

• The wind blowing hard, the man turned up his collar. 

The Participle

The Forms of the Participle

	Active	Passive
Indefinite	writing	being written
Perfect	having written	having been written

Note : - Those are the forms of Participle I which is formed by adding the suffix -ing to the stem of the verb (to go - going, to read - reading, etc.). Participle II has only one form (asked, came. spoken, cut, etc.).

Indefinite Participle denotes an action simultaneous with what expressed by the finite verb.
Perfect Participle denotes an action prior to that expressed by the finite verb.

Gerund examples in literature, proverbs and quotations

Proverbs and Sayings 

1. Comment on the use of the gerund in the following proverbs and sayings. Memorize them.

1. Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing him. 
2. He who likes borrowing dislikes paying. 
3. By doing nothing we learn to do ill. 
4. In doing we learn. 
5. Learn to swim by swimming. 
6. Think twice before speaking. 
7. Saying and doing are two things (Saying is one thing and doing another.) 
8. Doing is better than saying. 
9. The word spoken is past recalling. 
10. Seeing is believing. 

The Gerund

• Definition 
• The Forms of the Gerund 
• Functions of Gerunds in Sentences 
• Gerund or Infinitive? 
• Gerundial Complex 

The gerund is a non-finite form of the verb with some noun features. It is formed by adding the suffix -ing to the stem of the verb.

Example:  
Seeing is believing.

The gerund acts like a verb and a noun at the same time.

Like a verb:
     - It expresses action or a state of being.
     - The gerund has grammatical categories of voice and tense.
     - It may be modified by an adverb or have an object.  (E.g.: Reading (gerund) quickly (adverb) tires me.  I like reading (gerund) such books (direct object).)