14. The Gerund and the Verbal Noun compared.

14.0. The difference between the GER and the VN lies in their grammatical meaning, morphological features (categories and corresponding forms) and combinability.

14.1. The meaning of GER is verbal; it is mostly an activity presented as process with its participants and circumstances. VN names events in a more abstract way, without connection to its participants and is thus an abstract N.

14.2. Besides verbal combinability (GER takes Objects, Adverbial Modifiers, and can be followed by the INF) GER combines with possessives, negative pronoun no, but not with articles, adjectival attributes, which can precede the VN.

14.3. Although most VN have abstract semantics, they can be used in singular or plural form as they refer to either instances of something named - misgiving(s), shortcoming(s), going(s) on, etc., or objects through naming actions - offering(s). A few verbal nouns have become concrete – drawing, painting, recording, furnishing, etc. Some VN refer to single events and usually are not used in plural: a thrashing, a wedding. Unlike GER, VN can have attributes expressed by Adj. or N:

Jacob and David first did an entire inventory of the household furnishings they were purchasing for me.

Having all properties of a noun, the VN can have such noun determiners as articles, demonstratives, possessives, indefinite pronoun some, etc. It can be followed by an of-phrase, but it cannot have verbal categories such as Voice or Time Correlation found with GER. In the context of the sentence GER is referred to only by it, whereas the VN can be also indicated by the plural pronoun they, e.g.

Brendel has made a new recording. The recording (it) was made live. Dickens often gave readings of his work. They were very popular.

14.4. The use of article and the form of plural is determined by the contextual meaning of the VN:

The fabric was the color of claret, and the style of the furnishings was vaguely oriental. She recalls a visit to the White House for a screening of ‘The Pelican Brief’.

14.5. The GER and the VN are not differentiated in one instance – when they have possessives in front, and the verbal characteristics of GER are not so evident:

I have passed through many stages of the English language in my wanderings (VN, as the number is plural) and in my reading (VN or GER). Her gentle hand adjusted Rachael's shawl upon her shining black hair in the usual manner of her wearing it, and they went out (GER, as there is an object -‘it’).

14.6. The points of difference between GER and VN are summarized in the table below:

	GER	VN
Grammatical meaning	Generalization of events, activity	Events specific for the situation, objects (‘thingness’)
Morphological categories and forms	Voice: talking/being talked to	Number: goings out, sufferings, buildings, drawings
	Time correlation: going/having gone	Article determination: the readings, a thrashing, a wedding
Syntactic features: combinability	GER + Obj: taking lessons, GER + AM: walking slowly Prep + GER: sorry for having bothered N (Com./Poss.Case) + GER: Don(‘s) living in France Pron (Obj./Poss.) + GER: him/his speaking loudly;	Demonstr. Pron. + VN: that/these misdoing(s) N (Poss. Case)/Poss. Pron. + VN: Ronda’s/her offerings Some + VN: He had also done some film reviewing VN + of + N: the readings of Dickinson’s poems Num. + VN: five paintings Adj/N (Attrib.) + VN: the regular doing of morning exercises
Syntactic features: functions in the sentence	Subject, Object, Predicative, Adverbial Modifier
	Part of Compound Verbal Phasal Predicate: They kept on singing; Attribute: She had a talent for mind reading.	–

14.7. The semantic differentiation of GER and VN may be seen in translation – verbal nouns are often rendered into Russian by event nouns whereas GER tends to be translated by verbs:

Taking the suitcase from me firmly, he took all the packing into his own hands. – Уверенно забрав у меня чемодан, всю упаковку он взял на себя.	When you start packing there is trash everywhere. – Когда ты начинаешь собираться в дорогу, вокруг тебя полно всякого сора. I don’t object to your packing our things. – Не возражаю, если наши вещи соберешь ты.
As to the solving of the ABC mystery, I can only say that Poirot showed a real genius. – В отношении разгадки таинственных убийств по алфавиту, могу только сказать, что Пуаро оказался просто гениальным.	It seems he is incapable of solving the weighty problems that his firm is facing. – Кажется, он не способен решать серьезные проблемы, с которыми столкнулась его фирма. He failed in solving his problem in mathematics. – Он не смог решить своей задачи по математике.
The tragic sinking of the Titanic has never been forgotten. –Трагическая гибель Титаника не забыта.	“And what if the boxes were to float instead of sinking?” – Что если коробки останутся плавать, вместо того, чтобы потонуть?