What is the Difference Between a Gerund and a Present Participle

 What is the difference between a gerund and a present participle?

Both a gerund and a present participle come from a verb, and both end in –ing. However, each has a different function.  A gerund acts like a noun while a present participle acts like a verb or adjective.

Example: snowboarding

Snowboarding can be a gerund or a present participle.

When snowboarding is a gerund, it acts like a noun. It can be a subject, an object, the object of a preposition, or a subject complement.

• Snowboarding is a winter sport.   [snowboarding = subject]
• I love snowboarding.    [snowboarding = object ]
  
• I am excited by snowboarding.   [snowboarding = object of a preposition]
• One popular sport is snowboarding.   [snowboarding = subject complement]
  

When snowboarding is a present participle, it is part of a continuous verb tense.

• Right now, the athlete is snowboarding.   [is snowboarding = present continuous]    
  
• He was snowboarding yesterday afternoon.   [was snowboarding = past continuous]
• Tomorrow, my friends and I are going to be snowboarding.   [are going to be snowboarding = future continuous]                                                        
  

Unlike a gerund, a present participle can act like an adjective that modifies a noun or follows the be verb.

Example: exciting

An exciting time was had by all.

The word exciting is a present participle used as an adjective to modify a noun or to follow the verb to be.

• The exciting ride made the people scream.   [adjective + noun]
• People enjoyed the exciting roller coaster.   [adjective + noun]
• The roller coaster is exciting. [be verb + adjective]

 

Now YOU try: Look at the sentences below. Decide whether the underlined –ing word is acting like a noun, part of a verb, or an adjective. (Answers below)

1. What an amazing movie! I want to watch it again!

2. Speaking English well takes a long time.

3. He cares about getting a good job.

4. Shh! I am trying to sleep.

5. My friends and I were sitting in a café and talking.

6. The directions were very confusing.

7. They have been studying for a long time and want to take a break.

8. She loves traveling.

Answers: 1) adjective, 2) gerund, 3) gerund, 4) verb, 5) verb & verb, 6) adjective, 7) verb, 8) gerund

Premodifiers and Postmodifiers

 Pre-modifiers:

Pre-modifiers are the modifiers which modify the words that follow them in the sentence. Conventionally the adjectives are usually placed before the nouns. So, most of the adjectives are pre-modifiers. Adverbs are often placed before the words they modify.

Articles, determiners, demonstratives, proper adjectives, descriptive adjectives, compound adjectives, participles, etc. are the adjectives which come before the nouns and modify them.

Conjunctive adverbs, sentence adverbs, and some other adverbs can work being placed before the verbs/adjectives/other adverbs.

Post-modifiers

Post-modifiers are the modifiers which come after the words they modify. Customarily, the adverbs come after the verbs and modify them. However, some adjectives also come after the nouns and modify them.

Most of the adverbs of time, adverbs of manner, adverbs of place/direction usually come after the verbs they modify.

Appositives, prepositional phrases (adjectives/adverbs), infinitives (adverbs/adjectives), dependent clause, etc. usually come after the nouns they modify.