Gerunds!!

how do you work out whether the sentance is using the gerund form or not?
example
A friend of mine was accused of stealing food
I like swimming every morning



Am I being a bit simple?????

[mykwyner]

If you can substitute a noun, and the sentence still makes sense, then its a gerund.

A friend of mine was accused of stealing food

A friend of mine was accused of a crime food.

In the first sentence "a crime food" doesn't make sense. Therefore, stealing is a participle.

I like swimming every morning

I like coffee every morning.

In the second sentence, "I like coffee" makes sense, so swimming is a gerund.

[vil]

Dear Mykwyner,

Excuse my impetuous intervantion!

If I were you I would re-examine very attentively my (read "your") first statement concerning "A friend of mine was accused of stealing food". With all due deference to you I still think that your words sound very unconvincingly in my humble opinion.

Regards.

V.

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by vil

Dear Mykwyner,

Excuse my impetuous innervation!

If I were you I would re-examine very attentively my (read "your") first statement concerning "A friend of mine was accused of stealing food". With all due deference to you I still think that your words sound very unconvincingly in my humble opinion.

Regards.

V.

"intervention"

Why, Vil? It makes sense to me - if you cannot replace the -ing word with a noun and still make sense, the -ing word is a participle..

[vil]

Dear Anglika,

Thank you for your accurate emendation.

I must have a mistake again if you think like Mykwyner that "stealing" is a participle and not a gerund.

Openly we read different Grammar book. I will make an attempt to share with you my arguments concerning the present case.

In most cases the differentiation between the gerund and the participle does not present any difficulty.

Unlike the participle the gerund may be preceded by a preposition, it may be modified by a noun in the possessive case or by a possessive pronoun; it can be used in the function of a subject, object and predicative. In the function of an attribute and of an adverbial modifier both the gerund and the participle may be used, but the gerund in these functions is always preceded by a preposition.

There are cases, however, when the differentiation between the gerund and the participle presents some difficulty; for instance, it is not always easy to distinguish between a gerund as part of a compound noun and a participle used as an attribute to a noun. One should bear in mind that if we have a gerund as part of a compound noun, the person or thing denoted by the noun does not perform the action expressed by the ing-form: e.g. a dancing-hall (a hall for dancing), a cooking-stove (a stove for cooking) , walking shoes, writing-table, etc.

If we have a participle used as an attribute the person denoting by the noun performs the action expressed by the ing-form: e.g. a dancing girl (a girl who dances) , a singing child, etc.

A friend of mine was accused of stealing food.

From one hand the thing (food) denoted by the noun does not perform the action (my friend does that). Therefore "stealing" is a gerund.

From second hand there is a rule determines when we have to use gerund, namely:

In the following cases only the gerund is used:
With the following verbs and verbal phrases used with a preposition: to accuse of etc.

And finally, there is following recording in my English -Bulgarian Dictionary:
accuse / 'kjuz/ обвинявам /of, with gerund/

In this instance you have to understand my behaviour as well as the motive that prompted me to raise an objection against the previous statement.

I'd appreciate if you explain to me the rights of the case.

Regards.

V.

[vil]

Dear Anglika,

Sorry for the repetition.

V.

[IvanV]

vil, how about this:
A friend of mine was accused of stealing food.
A friend of mine was accused of food stealing.
? ;)

[vil]

Dear IvanV,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

Your proposal sounds to me very acceptable, but we shouldn't forget that we are only disciples and have to feel ourself obliged to follow the dierctions ours honored teachers.

Regards.

V.

[IvanV]

Originally Posted by vil

Dear IvanV,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

Your proposal sounds very acceptable to me, but we shouldn't forget that we are only learners(it goes better ;) ) and have to feel ourself obliged to follow the directions ours honored teachers.

Regards.

V.

I beg to differ. ;) You have to be active, teacher's word needn't be the last one...

[mykwyner]

Dear Vil,

The response I gave you was based on something called "traditional English grammar" which is what I was taught fifty years ago. Many scholars of modern English grammar, which is based on linguistic science, reject the idea that gerunds and participles are entirely different things. An excellent, if somewhat brief, article on the subject can be found here: Gerund - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia