3 Types of -ing Verb
Ready for some challenging academic grammar?
English grammar can be difficult because sometimes the same word works differently in different situations. This is true for -ing verbs, which can do three different things.
Let's look at the 3 types:
Three types of -ing verb
CONTINUOUS VERBS
The man is walking.
This is the most basic one: a present continuous verb. The subject in the sentence is "man" and "is walking" tells us what he is doing right now. If you see an -ing verb after a be verb (am, is, are, was, were), it is probably a continuous verb.
Another name for continuous verbs is progressive verbs. Continuous and progressive mean the same thing.
PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES
The walking man lives with my friend Paul.
The man walking across the street lives with my friend Paul.
In both of these sentences, walking works like an adjective, not a verb. Walking describes the man, and the verb in the sentence is lives. When an -ing verb describes a noun, we call it a participial adjective. Participial adjectives can come before or after the noun, but it is more common to put them after the noun.
Read a little more about participial adjectives here.
GERUNDS
The man likes walking.
In this sentence, we have a subject: the man. We have a verb: likes . What is the -ing verb here? It's the thing that the man likes. What does he like? Walking. Walking is the object of like. What are some other things you can like? Sports, travel, English. All nouns. Object of verbs are nouns, so walking is acting as a noun here. That's what a gerund is: an -ing verb that works like a noun.
More free English resources
Gerunds
Need to know what a gerund is? You've come to the right place!
gerunds in English
There are three common functions for -ing verbs:
participial adjectives
gerunds.
Let’s look at gerunds in a little more detail about gerunds.
We like to think a verb is a verb, and an adjective is an adjective, and a noun is a noun right? That would make sense. But by now you probably know that English doesn't always make sense!
Form vs. Function
Words can have both a form and a function. For a simple example, think about the word dog. A noun, right? But what about in the sentence Pablo bought some dog food? Here dog is describing the type of food. It works like an adjective. The form is a noun, but the function is an adjective.
So...What exactly is a gerund?
A gerund has the form of an -ing verb, but it functions is like a noun. That is, it does things that a noun usually does. What do nouns usually do? Often they work as subjects, direct objects, or objects of prepositions in sentences. And gerunds can do the same.
Take a look at these examples:
Rowing is hard work!
Clara loves sewing.
I'm thinking about going on vacation.
In the first sentence, rowing is the subject. In the second, sewing is the direct object of love. And in the third, going is the object of the preposition about . Notice that, even though the form of thinking looks like a gerund, it is not. It is a present progressive (or present continuous) verb.
So, one more time: a gerund is a verb ending in -ing that works like a noun, as a subject or object in a sentence.
If you've found this helpful, please share!
