The gerund

Meaning

A word ending in "-ing" that is made from a verb and used like a noun: In the sentence "Everyone enjoyed Tyler's singing", the word "singing" is a gerund.

Subject or object

A gerund can be either the subject or object of a sentence in English, e.g. 'Biking is fun' or 'I enjoy biking'.

-ing but not to-infinitive

Some verbs are normally followed by the -ing form, not the to-infinitive: I always enjoy cooking. Not: I always enjoy to cook. We haven't finished eating yet. Not: We haven't finished to eat. She keeps changing her mind about the wedding.

New subject before -ing

Some of these verbs (e.g. can't stand, dislike, imagine, involve, mind, put off and risk) can be used with a new subject before the -ing form (underlined in the examples below). If the new subject is a pronoun, it is in the object form (me, him, her, us, them): We just couldn't imagine Gerry singing in public. Do you mind me being here while you're working? I don't want to risk him losing his job.

Hate, like, love, prefer

Hate, like, love and prefer can be followed either by -ing or a to-infinitive. The difference in meaning is often small. The -ing form emphasises the verb itself. The to-infinitive puts the emphasis more on the preference for, or the result of, the action.

-ing forms as adjectives

The -ing adjective can come: In front of a noun:    I read an interesting article in the newspaper today.    We saw a really exciting match on Sunday. After a link verb like be, look or sound:    Your new book sounds very interesting.    The children can be really annoying. After a noun:    Who is that man standing over there?    The boy talking to Angela is her younger brother. Especially after verbs of the senses like see, watch, hear, smell, etc.:    I heard someone playing the piano.    I can smell something burning.

Prepositions + verb + -ing

When you want to express your opinion or attitude about doing something, the verb or adjective takes as a preposition complement a gerund (verb -ing form). This is called a prepositional complement with gerund. The structure is the following: Verb/Adjective + preposition + gerund (-ing) E.g. Men are cray about watching sports. She is interested in reading science. When the prepositions in, at, with, of, for, about and so on are used before a verb/adjective, the verb must use -ing. All prepositions are followed by a gerund as, despite, from, with, to, by, in, on, at, up, through, after, etc.