We all have been learning about English Grammar along with its significance in the technologically advanced world. Every day you might come across some new conceptions or applications of those new concepts. Till now you might be aware of the Gerunds in English. But have you heard of Gerund Phrase?
With our English lessons, today we would be working on Gerund Phrases. By knowing its meaning, the usage, and application in English Grammar.
Let’s start with the definition of the Gerund Phrase.
What is a Gerund Phrase?
Basically a gerund phrase would start with a gerund. It is a phrase that would function as a noun in an English sentence. Still wondering?
Let’s try to break the definition to make more clear and understandable. As you already know that a Gerund is a verb that ends with -ing. Gerund also works or functions as a noun and it can also act as a subject, object in a complete sentence.
Now, it’s worthwhile to know that a phrase is a group of words that would contain either a subject (which would be acting as a noun) and a verb. It would be having both. With a Gerund Phrase, you can make use of a subject, object and even complement them by adding more details to any sentence.
Examples of Gerund Phrases in Sentences
Following are some examples of gerund phrase:
- Writing on a white board is a fun activity for children.
- Jack saved us by driving away from the police.
- Piling too much food into stomach will cause it to malfunction.
- Riding my bike around town is my favorite hobby.
- Drinking ginger tea on a cold day can be a good way to start.
- Janice got a ticket for running a red light.
- Pablo’s favorite hobby is playing the piano.
- Eating after night is a bad habit.
By now you would have got some idea of how gerund phrases work and how to identify them in sentences. Let’s move ahead and see what are their different types.
3 Different Types of Gerund Phrases
Now we would be discussing the different types of Gerund Phrase
As we already know that a gerund phrase can act as noun, subject, object, and even complement. Then let’s begin to see how it is done.
1. Gerund Phrase as Subject
Example 1
Eating after midnight is a bad habit.
In the above example, you can see that the sentence is about ‘eating after midnight’, and hence the gerund phrase acts as the subject of the sentence.
Example 2
Riding my bike around town is my favorite hobby.
In the provided sentence given above, you would notice that it is about ‘riding my bike around town’, which makes the gerund phrase the subject of the sentence.
2. Gerund Phrase as Object
Generally, Objects in English Grammar refer to the words that ‘receive’ another part of a sentence. With this note, we are able to analyze that Gerund phrases can be one of two types of objects. There are two types of objects – Direct Object and Object Of Preposition.
- Direct objects – receive the action of the verb.
- Objects of prepositions – receive prepositions.
Let’s check out some examples to understand it in a better way.
Example 1
Kobe’s teammate tried setting a pick for him.
In the above sentence, ‘setting a pick for him’ clearly states that it is the direct object of the verb ‘tried’; hence it is receiving the action of ‘tried’.
Example 2
Janice got a ticket for running a red light.
Now here, the gerund phrase ‘running a red light’ is acting as the object of the preposition ‘for’.
3. Gerund Phrase as Complement
Initially, you need to know about a complement. It is a word that re-states or gives more information about a noun. It always follows a state-of-being verb (is, are, am, will be, was, were).
Example 1
Pablo’s favorite hobby is playing the piano.
Here, in the sentence, you can see that ‘Playing the piano’ re-states what Pablo’s hobby is, and gives us more information about it. Hence it becomes easy to understand that it is a gerund phrase acting as the complement to ‘hobby’.
Example 2
Competition is trying to do better than your opponent.
Now, you could see that the gerund phrase in the above example sentence is re-stating what competition is, and so it is the complement of ‘competition’.
Conclusion:
SO, now you are familiar with the Gerund and also with Gerund phrase. With the example sentences, you could easily get the clarification of how the sentences can be formed from the phrases. So stay tuned with EnglishBix to keep learning new concepts.