Gerund Phrases Lesson

Gerund Phrases Lesson

SWBAT identify gerunds and gerund phrases. SWBAT distinguish a gerund from a participle.

Multiple Choice

What is the subject of this sentence?

Dancing is the love of Tiffany's life.

• Dancing

• love

• Tiffany's

• life

Participles Recap

• A Participle is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often ends in “ing” or –”ed” (from the present & past participle form of the verb). 

• The crying baby had a wet diaper. 

• Shaken, he walked away from the wrecked car. 

• The burning log fell off the fire. 

• Smiling, she hugged the panting dog.

A gerund

• a verb that ends in -ing and functions as a noun

A gerund phrase

• A gerund with modifiers or a complement, all acting together as a noun.

• Example: The Aztecs were skilled at building in dense forests.

Gerund Types

• Gerund as subject:

  Traveling might satisfy your desire for new experiences. 

  (Traveling is the gerund.)

  
  

  Gerund as direct object:

  They do not appreciate singing. 

  (The gerund is singing.)

  
  

  
  

Gerund Types Continued

• Gerund as subject complement:

  My cat's favorite activity is sleeping. 

  (The gerund is sleeping.)

  
  

  Gerund as object of preposition:

  The police arrested him for speeding. 

  (The gerund is speeding.)

Multiple Choice

A gerund is...

• a verb ending in -ed that functions as a noun

• a verb ending in -ing that functions as a noun

• a noun ending in -ing that functions as a verb

• a verb ending in -ing that functions as an adjective.

Gerund Examples

• Finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than what we're trying to do.

  -Finding (gerund)

  -a needle (direct object of action)

  -in a haystack (prepositional phrase)-

Gerund example

• My teacher likes questioning us on our math skills.

• questioning (gerund)

  us (direct object of action)

  on our math skills (prepositional phrase

Multiple Choice

Identify the gerund phrase of the sentence:

Trading with Native Americans allowed Europeans to survive.

• Trading with Native Americans

• allowed Europeans

• to survive

• allowed

Multiple Choice

Identify the gerund phrase in the sentence:

Reading books quietly is my favorite pastime.

• Reading

• Reading books quietly

• is my favorite

• favorite pastime.

How do we identify gerund phrases?

Gerunds, like noun clauses, can always be replaced by the word it. 

Participles and Participial phrases NEVER can.  

Gerunds are ALWAYS singular so IT will always work!  

Ex. Rob enjoys swimming.  Rob enjoys it.   (Works!)

Ex. Rob is swimming in a meet today (doesn’t work)

Multiple Select

True or False: Gerunds can ALWAYS be replaced by the word "it."

• True

• False

Verb? Participle? Noun?

• The Bears are winning the game (main verb)

• The winning team scores the most points (adjective)

• Winning is everything! (Gerund)

Multiple Choice

Practice: Identify whether the underlined word is a verb, participle, or gerund.

The tribe was growing in size and staying in one place longer.

• verb

• participle

• gerund

Multiple Choice

Practice: Since the advantages of hunting far outweighed the advantages of farming, the Crow became mostly a hunting tribe.

• verb

• participle

• gerund

Multiple Choice

Practice: Since the advantages of hunting far outweighed the advantages of farming, the Crow became mostly a hunting tribe.

• verb

• participle

• gerund

Multiple Choice

For some tribes, prospering was easy on the west coast.

• verb

• participle

• gerund

Open Ended

Exit Slip: Write your own sentence using a gerund phrase that reflects on the story we read, "A Dead Woman's Secret."