English Reference Book

. Gerund. The gerund is a verbal noun (the name of an action) and ends in‘ing’:(1) If you can put ‘the act of’ in front of a word ending in ‘ing’, that word is agerund (‘Teaching is my job.’ ‘Being a teacher is rewarding.’ ‘Teaching can behard work.’).(2) A gerund has the characteristics of both a verb and a noun in that it canhave an object and yet can be qualified by an adjective (‘Eating is enjoyable.’‘Continuous working will be required.’ ‘Navigating a submarine requires greatconcentration.’).(3) When using a noun or pronoun before a gerund, use the possessive form,eg:(a) ‘The chance of their succeeding’ – not ‘them succeeding’.(b) ‘I can see no reason for your adopting that attitude’ – not ‘you adopting’.(c) ‘There is a danger of the team’s losing that match’ – not ‘team losing’.(4) There are exceptions to this rule:(a) Where the noun or pronoun is stressed, (‘Though I approve ofmarriage, I cannot approve of John marrying’).(b) Where the noun is plural, (‘I cannot approve of passengers smoking’).(c) Where the noun is qualified by an adjective, (‘I cannot agree to anuntrained tradesman serving’).(d) Where the noun is non-personal, (‘They left, without permission beingasked’).(e) Where 2 or more nouns are grouped, (‘She was British, due to herfather and mother being naturalized’).(f) Where a pronoun is non-personal, (‘I cannot conceive of anything beingstolen’).(g) Where pronouns are grouped, (‘He consented to some of themjoining’).(5) A gerund can become misrelated or unrelated in much the same way as aparticiple. For example, ‘after submitting the assessed exercises, DS mark andwrite critiques on them’ implies that the DS, and not the students, submit theexercises.4-5