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San Jose City College

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Parts of Speech: Using Gerunds and Present Participles
Parts of speech are the building blocks of sentences: form follows function.

Gerund or Participle? Decifering the Difference:

Like gerunds, participles are verbals; they are formed by adding -ing to the base form of the verb and express action or state of being.

Unlike Gerunds, which function as nouns in sentences, PARTICIPLES function as ADJECTIVES in sentences. The examples and exercises in this activity focus on present participles, which suggest action and come from active verbs. As adjectives, participles modify nouns or pronouns. They can have the following sentence positions:

Adjective + Noun: I was awakened by the screaming child. (The participle modifies child.)

Subject + Linking Verb + Adjective (subject complement): The horror film was extremely frightening. (The participial adjective modifies the subject, horror film).

Participial (Adjective) Phrase: The police noticed the thief hiding on the rooftop. (The participial phrase modifies thief. An adjective phrase always follows the noun it modifies.

Introductory Participial Phrase: Looking for a place to hide, the thief climbed the fire escape to the rooftop.

Three things to remember about introductory participial phrase modifiers:

An introductory participial phrase can only be used if the understood subject of the phrase is the same as the stated subject of the sentence. (*Having found the right partner, marriage was extremely happy for Katie. Note that it was Katie who found her partner, so Katie must be the subject of the sentence.The correct order is Having found the right partner, Katie was extremely happy in her marriage. )

The noun or pronoun subject of the sentence must be clearly stated to avoid confusion.

The introductory phrase is set off with commas.

The above tips on Placement and Punctuation are very important for correct use of introductory participial phrases.

GERUND or PARTICIPLE? Read and decide.

Click on all of the (-ing) words in the following sentences and analyze carefully their placement and function. A few sentences have more than one.
Identify the part of speech as gerund or participle, based on whether it has a noun/noun phrase function or an adjective/adjective phrase function.

1. Feeling sick, Feeling sick, Michael excused himself from class.
             Gerund        Participle

2. Everyone hates having the fluhaving the flu.
        Gerund        Participle

3. Swimming regularly Swimming regularly is great cardiovascular exercise.
        Gerund        Participle

4. Having completed all of his homework, Having completed all of his homework, Kolby watched the San Jose Sharks beat the Los Angeles Kings.
        Gerund      Participle

5. Rushing to work Rushing to work can result in careless drivingdriving.
        Gerund        Participle
        Gerund        Participle
6. Rushing to meet her deadline, Rushing to meet her deadline, Marcia made a lot of typing typing mistakes in the report.
       Gerund      Participle
       Gerund       Participle
7. Using the jaws of life to cut away the cabin of the truck, Using the jaws of life to cut away the cabin of the truck, the paramedics finally managed to get the driver out.
        Gerund       Participle
8. Pedro and his friends canceled their plans to go hiking hiking in the mountains when the clouds became very threateningthreatening.
       Gerund       Participle
       Gerund      Participle
9. Finding Nemo Finding Nemo was a charmingcharming fish tale about a loving loving father's search for his lost son.
       Gerund       Participle
       Gerund        Participle
       Gerund        Participle

10. Reading the newspaper Reading the newspaper is important for staying on top of current eventsstaying on top of current events.
       Gerund        Participle
       Gerund        Participle

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