In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin gerundium, meaning "which is to be carried out". In English, the gerund has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable by an adverb and being able to take a direct object. The term "-ing form" is often used in English to refer to the gerund specifically. Traditional grammar makes a distinction within -ing forms between present participles and gerunds, a distinction that is not observed in such modern grammars as A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language and The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
Traditional use
The Latin gerund, in a restricted set of syntactic contexts, denotes the sense of the verb in isolation after certain prepositions, and in certain uses of the genitive, dative, and ablative cases. It is very rarely combined with a dependent sentence element such as an object. To express such concepts, the construction with the adjectival gerundive is preferred. By contrast, the term gerund has been used in the grammatical description of other languages to label verbal nouns used in a wide range of syntactic contexts and with a full range of clause elements.
Thus, English grammar uses gerund to mean an -ing form used in non-finite clauses such as playing on computers. This is not a normal use for a Latin gerund. Moreover, the clause may function within a sentence as subject or object, which is impossible for a Latin gerund. Playing on computers is fun. (-ing clause as subject) I like playing on computers (-ing clause as object) The contrast with the Latin gerund is also clear when the clause consists of a single word. Computing is fun. ("gerund" as subject) I like computing ("gerund" as object) Latin never uses the gerund in this way, but instead uses the infinitive.
Traditional English grammar distinguishes non-finite clauses used as above from adverbial use, adjective-like modification of nouns, and use in finite progressive (continuous) forms Playing on computers, they whiled the day away. The boys playing on computers are my nephews. They are always playing on computers. In these uses playing is traditionally labelled a participle.
Traditional grammar also distinguishes -ing forms with exclusively noun properties as in I work in that building contrast "gerund" I like building things That is a good painting contrast "gerund" I like painting pictures Her writing is good contrast "gerund" I like writing novels The objection to the term gerund in English grammar is that -ing forms are frequently used in ways that do not conform to the clear-cut three-way distinction made by traditional grammar into gerunds, participles and nouns.
Latin gerund
Form The Latin gerund is a form of the verb. It is composed of: the infectum stem (the stem used to form present and imperfect tense forms) a vowel appropriate to the verb class or conjugation of the verb the suffix -nd- a nominal inflectional ending For example, laud- -a- -nd- -um, -ī, -ō First conjugation laudandum 'the act of praising' mon- -e- -nd- -um, -ī, -ō Second conjugation monendum 'the act of warning'leg- -e- -nd- -um, -ī, -ō Third conjugation legendum 'the act of reading'capi- -e- -nd- -um, -ī, -ō Third conjugation capiendum 'the act of taking' audi- -e- -nd- -um, -ī, -ō Fourth conjugation audiendum 'the act of hearing' Related gerundive forms are composed in a similar way with adjectival inflexional endings.
Function The four inflections are used for a limited range of grammatical functions Case Function Example Translation Notes Nominative Subject no example infinitive used Accusative Object no example infinitive used Accusative After preposition canes alere ad venandumTerence, Andria 57. 'to rear dogs for hunting' after ad, in, ob and occasionally other prepositions Genitive Modifying abstract noun pugnandi tempus 'time for (lit. of) fighting' nouns include occasio, tempus, causa, gratia Dative Expressing purpose auscultando operam dare 'apply effort to listening' after verbs, e.g., studeo, operam dare and adjectives, e.g., natus, optimus Ablative Instrumental pugnando cepimus 'we took by fighting' became undistinguishable from participle use, thus providing the gerundio forms in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, which are used instead of forms derived from Latin present participles These functions could be fulfilled by other abstract nouns derived from verbs such as vēnātiō 'hunting'. Gerunds are distinct in two ways. Every Latin verb can regularly form a gerund A gerund may function syntactically as the head of a verb phrase: for instance, the gerund of a transitive verb may take a direct object in the accusative case, e.g., ad discernendum vocis verbi figuras 'for discerning figures of speech', hominem investigando opera dabo 'I will devote effort to investigating the man'. However, this was a rare construction. Writers generally preferred the gerundive construction, in which the gerundive adjective was inflected to agree with the noun acting as its object: such as res evertendae reipublicae 'matters concerning the overthrow of the state' (literally 'of the state being overthrown').
When people first wrote grammars of languages such as English, and based them on works of Latin grammar, they adopted the term gerund to label non-finite verb forms with these two properties.
Gerunds in various languages Meanings of the term gerund as used in relation to various languages are listed below.
Latin and Romance Latin has the non-finite gerundium, formed with -andum, -endum and noun inflexions. It is syntactically equivalent to a noun, except in the nominative and accusative cases, which use the infinitive. In particular the ablative case forms (-ando, -endo) were used adverbially. Latin grammars written in English use the form gerund. See the section above for further detail.
Several Romance languages have inherited the form, but without case inflections. They use it primarily in an adverbial function, comparably to the Latin ablative use. The same form may be used in an adjectival function and to express progressive aspect meaning. These languages do not use the term present participle, since it refers to a different form. Grammars of these languages written in English may use the form gerund. Italian gerundio: stem form + -ando or -endo Spanish gerundio: stem form + -ando or -iendo Portuguese gerúndio: stem form + -ando, -endo or -indo Romanian gerunziu: stem form + -ând(u) or -ind(u) Catalan and French have inherited not the gerund form but the Latin present participle form in -nt. Catalan gerundi: stem form + -ant or -ent French stem form + -ant. French grammar maintains a distinction between: participe présent when the form is used adjectivally, and may be inflected for gender and number. gérondif when the form is used adverbially, without inflection, generally after the preposition en. In Modern French, the gérondif cannot be used to express progressive meaning. Grammars of French written in English may use the forms gerundive and present participle.
Germanic In the earliest stages of the West Germanic languages, the infinitive was inflected after a preposition. These dative and, more rarely, genitive case forms are sometimes called gerundium or gerund or West Germanic gerund. Old English to berenne (to bear) dative of beran Old High German zi beranne dative of beran Old Saxon berannia dative of beran Old Frisian beranne The modern continental successor languages German and Dutch have preserved a few vestiges of these forms, which are sometimes termed gerundium. Frisian preserves the original distinction, e.g., West Frisian freegje ("ask") – te freegjen English has no vestige of the West Germanic gerund. Traditional grammar uses the term gerund for the -ing form of a verb when it is used as a noun (for example, the verb reading in the sentence "I enjoy reading."). See the sections below for further detail. In Dutch, it translates either the term "gerundium" or the description "zelfstandig gebruikte, verbogen onbepaalde wijs van het werkwoord". The infinitive form of the verb is used as gerund, e.g., Zwemmen is gezond. Since Afrikaans has by and large lost explicit morphological marking of the infinitive form of the verb, verb stems are used as gerunds, e.g., Swem is gesond.
Slavic In descriptions of Slavic languages, the term gerund refers to verbal forms that are also frequently referred to as verbal adverb, adverbial participle, or (in some Slavic languages) deepričastie. These forms describe circumstances, actions concurrent (present gerund) or immediately preceding (past gerund) those in the predicate. Morphologically they are uninflected (except in Czech), and syntactically they have an adverbial function, and thus generally bear resemblance to Romance gerunds such as those found in Italian, rather than to noun-like gerunds in English or Latin. In Bulgarian, it translates the term (deepriʧastije). It refers to the verb noun formed by adding the suffix - (-jki) to the verb form, like (hodi, he/she/it walks) – (hodejki, while walking) In Macedonian, it refers to the verb noun formed by adding the suffix - (-jḱi) to the verb form, like in јаде (jade, he eats) — (jadejḱi, while eating). In Russian, it translates the term (dejepričastije) an adverbial participle formed with the suffixes - (-ja) Present; - (-v) or - (-vši) Past. In Serbo-Croatian, it was used to refer to what are now classified as participles / verbal adverbs: present (-ći) and past (-vši, sometimes -v). Modern grammars rarely use the term. Additionally, some linguists use the term to refer to verbal nouns, historically formed with the *-ьje suffix, such as Serbo-Croatian (from ) or Polish (from ).
Other In Arabic, it refers to the verb's action noun, known as the masdar form (Arabic: ). This form ends in a tanwin and is generally the equivalent of the -ing ending in English. In Hebrew, it refers either to the verb's action noun, or to the part of the infinitive following the infinitival prefix (also called the infinitival construct). In Hungarian, it has no equivalent category in the classical sense, and is categorized under noun. It may practically refer to the verbal noun, usually formed by appending a suffix. For additional information, see the Hungarian article on its equivalent for infinitives. Common suffixes are -ás (adás, giving), -és (kérés, asking), but verbal nouns are occasionally formed by removing the suffix from the verb (tánc, dance). In Irish it is formed by adding ag + the verbal noun. For example, ag scríobh (writing, or “at the act of writing”). In Japanese, there are three main grammatical structures with gerund-like functions: first, turning verbs into nouns is achieved, depending on the type of verb and other factors, by using either the conjunctive form (the form that attaches to -masu, -tai, etc.) or the nominalization particles no and koto. Lastly, the continuous and progressive aspect of a verb can be realized by employing the perfective form (-te form) plus the auxiliary verb iru. In Korean, it refers to the word '것' ('thing') modified by the adjective form of the verb. In Maldivian (Dhivehi), the gerund is the root form of the verb, for example, , meaning "dancing". In Persian, it refers to the verb's action noun, known as the ism-masdar form (Persian: ). In Turkish, it refers to a large number of verb endings subject to vowel harmony and sometimes used in conjunction with postpositions. Called zarf-fiil, bağ-fiil, ulaç or gerundium and defined as "a verb used as an adverb in a sentence", the Turkish gerund may also constitute part of an (adverbial) clause.
In other languages, it may refer to almost any non-finite verb form; however, it most often refers to an action noun, by analogy with its use as applied to Latin.