The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar with Exercises

The difference between the gerund and the present participle

Since the simple gerund and the present participle have the same form (verb-ing), sometimes it can be difficult to decide whether an -ing form is a gerund or a present participle.

It may be worth remembering that a gerund always functions as a noun:

Function

Example sentence

Subject

Hiking

can be a relaxing and rewarding activity.

Complement

What I really like is

travelling

to other countries.

Object of a verb

Jill suggested

going

for a drink.

Object of a preposition

He rushed out of the room without

saying

a word.

Object of a prepositional verb

Could you give up

smoking

?

Part of a compound noun

We had no

drinking

water left.

The present participle has the following functions:

Function

Example sentence

Continuous aspect

I wasn't

listening

.

What have you been

doing

?

You must be

joking

.

I happened to be

passing

your house.

Adjective

The survey revealed some

worrying

results.

The results of the survey were/seemed

worrying

.

Participle clauses

The man

driving

the car was not injured.

Tom lost his keys (while)

walking

through the park.

Opening

the envelope, I found two concert tickets.

Having

nothing left to do, Paula went home.

Sometimes it is a matter of interpretation whether an -ing form is a gerund or a present participle:

Hunting

lions can be dangerous.

Hunting as a present participle functions as an adjective and describes lions. The sentence means:

Lions that hunt can be dangerous.

If hunting is a gerund, lions is its object and the sentence means:

It can be dangerous to hunt lions.