"I noticed my friend TO TRY not to laugh…….?" It's a participle!įor once, the formation of a Gerund is quite simple. "I noticed my friend TRYING not to laugh" Try it with this one and you'll see the difference: "I'd like the chance TO MEET Emma Watson" IF IT STILL MAKES SENSE, IT WAS A GERUND: REPLACE THE "-ING" VERB WITH AN INFINITIVE ('To …….'). If you want to be sure which one you have, try the following method: The difference is that with a Participle, the word is used as an adjective, rather than a noun. You may notice, of course, that exactly the same ending is used for Present Participles in English. "My favourite hobby is COLLECTING Mars-bar wrappers" "I'd like the chance of MEETING Emma Watson" One trick that never fails (he claims) is to put up your hand and ask, earnestly: "What is a Gerund, Sir?" This, he says, will cause the master (who has no idea) to stutter, clutch the desk and flip his way surreptitiously underneath it through the pages of Kennedy's Shortbread Eating Primer until he finds the relevant bit, giving the class at least a couple of minutes off….įortunately for you, VDB has already done the necessary research, so you need have no fears about the advice you are about to get (although you should definitely still look at the cartoon strip in the above-mentioned book - entitled 'The Private Life of the Gerund' - to get the complete picture).Ī Gerund is actually a Noun formed from a Verb - having the meaning of the basic idea of that verb it ends in the letters "-ING" and can often take an Object:Į.g. When he gets to Latin, he has to admit however that the only way really is to WORK ( 'chiz chiz…') so instead he outlines a few ways to distract the teacher and thereby get the odd brief moment of respite. It is almost impossible to start any survey of the uses of Gerunds & Gerundives without referring to the immortal Molesworth books (if you haven't read them, find them immediately!) The one entitled 'How To Be Topp' (sic) explains various ruses and schemes to cheat your way to success in different school subjects (from the point of view of Nigel Molesworth, the world's laziest Prep School boy).
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