The gerund and verbal noun

The gerund and the participle

In most cases the differentiation between the gerund and the participle does not present any difficulty.

Unlike the participle the gerund may be preceded by a prepo­sition, it may be modified by a noun in the possessive case or by a possessive pronoun; it can be used in the function of a subject, object, and predicative. In the function of an attribute and of an adverbial modifier both the gerund and the participle may be used, but the gerund in these functions is always preceded by a preposition.

There are cases, however, when the differentiation between the gerund and the participle presents some difficulty; for instance, it is not always easy to distinguish between a gerund as part of a compound noun and a participle used as an attribute to a noun. One should bear in mind that if we have a gerund as part of a compound noun, the person or thing denoted by the noun does not perform the action expressed by the ing-form: e. g. a dancing-hall (a hall for dancing), a cooking-stove (a stove for cooking), walking shoes, a writing-table, etc.

If we have a participle used as an attribute the person denoted by the noun performs the action expressed by the ing-loxm: e. g. a dancing girl (a girl who dances), a singing child, etc.

However, there are cases which admit of two interpretations; for example a sewing machine may be understood in two ways: a machine for sewing and a machine which sews; a hunting dog may be a dog for hunting and a dog that hunts.

The gerund should not be confused with the verbal noun, which has the same suffix -ing. The main points of difference between the gerund and the verbal noun are as follows:

Like all the verbals the gerund has a double character — nominal and verbal.

The gerund is not used with an article.

The gerund has no plural form.

The gerund of a transitive verb takes a direct object.

He received more and more letters, so many that he had given up read­ing them. (Priestley)

The gerund may be modified by an adverb.

Drinking, even temperately, was a sin. (Dreiser)

The verbal noun has only a nom­inal character.

The verbal noun may be used with an article.

The making of a new humanity can­not be the privilege of a handful of bureaucrats. (Fox)

I want you to give my hair a good brushing. (Hardy)

The verbal noun may be used in the plural.

Our likings are regulated by our cir­cumstances. (Ch. Bronte)

A verbal noun cannot take a direct object; it takes a pre­positional object with the pre­position of.

Meanwhile Gwendolen was rallying her nerves to the reading of the paper. (Eliot)

The verbal noun may be modi­fied by an adjective.

He (Tom) took a good scolding about clodding Sid. (Twain)

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