2. Structures with the gerund

The Gerund can be used:

1. singly: • He was intent on winning.

2. in a phrase: • She left without saying good-bye.

3. in a construction: • Mr. Smith was against the girls

getting married.

In a gerundial construction the gerund is in predicate relation to a noun or a pronoun. The construction is used to indicate a change of reference from the subject of the finite verb to smb/smth else, that is the subject of the sentence is not identical with the subject performing the action denoted by the gerund. The nominal elements of the construction can be expressed:

1) by a noun in the common case. The possessive of nouns is used mostly in formal style when the noun phrase has personal reference. The possessive is avoided in informal style and when the noun phrase is lengthy:

• Do you remember people of different social classes protesting against the new bill?

2) by a pronoun in the objective case or by a possessive pronoun, which are more or less interchangeable, the object pronoun being more informal:

• I dislike him/his coming here every day.

3) by various other pronouns: all, that, this, both, each, something, etc.:

• She insisted on both of them being wrong.

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Минченков А. Г. 3. FUNCTIONS

3.1. Subject

We begin the sentence with a gerund when we want to focus on what it expresses. On the whole, the gerund is more often used at the beginning of a sentence than the infinitive and not only in formal English:

• Working with him was fun.

Still, it is more common to introduce the gerund with the help of it.

• It was great fun skiing.

• It was difficult persuading him.

Structures like the last one are rather common in informal English, more common than similar structures with the infinitive.

There are a few fixed phrases which begin with the introductory it and are followed by the gerund as the real subject:

it is fun

it is no/little use

it is no good

it is (not) worth

• It is no use your worrying about me.

• I don't think it is worth working so hard.

• It is worth paying attention to what he says.

•

A single gerund as subject can also be introduced by there to form the following structures:

• There is no knowing what he is up to. • There is no denying his talent.

• There is no telling which of them will finish first.

3.2. Predicative

• Her only fun was reading books.

Verbals

3.3. Part of a compound verbal aspect predicate

The gerund is often found here after the same verbs as the infinitive:

• He began reading the book.

The gerund is also used after the verbs carry on, keep on, finish, go on and stop:

• In spite of the noise she carried on writing.

• She kept on saying that she was worried.

Notes:

1. On is used after keep for greater emphasis.

2. Stop can be used with an infinitive of purpose. Compare:

• She stopped talking (= 'she didn't talk any longer').

• She stopped to talk to her friend (= 'she stopped and began to talk to her friend').

3) begin, start, cease, continue

Begin, start and continue are used both with the infinitive and the gerund with practically no change in meaning. Yet, with begin and start there is a tendency to use the infinitive for events that are impersonal or involuntary, and the gerund for voluntary actions:

• She began to grow angry.

• It started to get warm.

• We started packing our things.

Cease, a formal equivalent of stop, usually takes the gerund:

• They should cease slandering you.

Only the infinitive is used with all the four verbs when: i) they are in the continuous form:

• He was beginning to understand.

ii) the verb that follows is not used in the continuous form:

• He has ceased to be our ally.

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Минченков А. Г.

Verbals

4) go on The infinitive is used when go on means 'proceed to do something else':

• However, he goes on to say that she was a good queen. The gerund is used when go on means 'continue':

• She went on repeating that.