Level: beginner
We can use the -ing form of a verb:
- as a noun:
I love swimming.
Swimming is very good for your health.
You can get fit by swimming regularly.
- as an adjective:
The main problem today is rising prices.
That programme was really boring.
He saw a woman lying on the floor.
-ing forms as nouns
-ing nouns are nearly always uncount nouns. They can be used:
- as the subject of a verb:
Learning English is not easy.
- as the object of a verb:
We enjoy learning English.
Common verbs followed by an -ing object are:
admit like hate start avoid suggest enjoy dislike begin finish
- as the object of a preposition :
Some people are not interested in learning English.
- -ing form as a noun
-ing forms as adjectives
The -ing adjective can come:
- in front of a noun:
I read an interesting article in the newspaper today.
We saw a really exciting match on Sunday.
- after a link verb like be, look or sound:
Your new book sounds very interesting.
The children can be really annoying.
- after a noun:
Who is that man standing over there?
The boy talking to Angela is her younger brother
- especially after verbs of the senses like see, watch, hear, smell, etc.:
I heard someone playing the piano.
I can smell something burning.
The commonest -ing adjectives are:
| amusing boring disappointing |
interesting surprising tiring |
worrying exciting frightening |
shocking terrifying annoying |
- -ing form as an adjective
Patterns with -ing forms
Because an -ing noun or adjective is formed from a verb, it can have any of the patterns which follow a verb. For example:
- it can have an object:
I like playing tennis.
I saw a dog chasing a cat.
- it can be followed by a clause:
I heard someone saying that he saw you.
- -ing form as a noun or adjective 1
- -ing form as a noun or adjective 2
Hello HieuNT,
In general, the -ing form (gerund) tends to refer to the activity (speaking, communicating) while the noun refers to the subject or concept (speech, communication). Often both forms are possible, as in your example, and sometimes only one form exists (writing, reading etc).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Mr. Peter M.,
Thank you for your answer. So, I understand that the choice of words (a gerund or a noun) will depend on what writers want to emphasise (the action or the subject), right?
In my example, the meaning of the sentence is literally the same for a non-native speaker like me, regardless of whether "communicating" or "communication" is used. Does it sounds the same for you as a native speaker?
Hieu Nguyen
Hi again Hieu,
Yes, in the context you provided there is no difference. If you were talking about a subject of study, however, you would need to use the noun ('communication').
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Great! I get it now.
Thank you for your explanation, Mr. Peter.
''Fearful of how the security forces might react, the local police balked at registering an FIR.''
Has 'being' been omitted before the 'Fearful' in the above sentence? Or this doesn't require 'being'. What grammar rule does the first clause (Fearful of how the security...) follow, incase 'being' is not omitted? Please explain. Thanks and regards.
PS: I really appreciate the tremendous job you all do on this forum, replying and resolving almost every query by providing satisfactory answer.
Hello Wrakshamara,
'Fearful' is an adjective so I think there are two ways to see a construction like this.
1. The sentence is an example of adjective fronting similar to this: 'Golden and bright, the sun rose over the horizon.'
2. There is a participle clause headed by an adjective ('fearful') with the participle 'being' omitted, as you suggest.
To choose which of these is correct I think we need to look at how the phrase (clause) functions in the sentence. If it is simply descriptive then (1) is the correct explanation. If, on the other hand, it is explaining the cause of the main clause's action then (2) is correct. In my view the latter explanation is the right one: 'Fearful of...' explains why the police baulk and (2) is the explanation.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
''The house of cards is unraveling, faster than the time it took to put it all together.''
What grammar rule does the latter clause follow? What do we call it? Is it fine to use it in formal writing? Can that be put otherwise?
Hello Wrakshamara,
In your sentence 'faster than the time it took to put it all together' functions as an adverbial.
In terms of sentence structure, 'faster' is an adverb. It describes the verb phrase 'is unraveling'. It is followed by 'than' which in this example is a conjunction introducing the second item of the comparison.
The sentence is grammatically and stylistically fine in both formal and non-formal speech and writing, though I don't think the comma is required.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
1.Simply put, John does not want Harris transferred.
2. Simply put, John does not want Harris to be transferred.
Which sentence is grammatically correct and why?
Hello Wrakshamara,
Both of these are correct. 2 is the full form and in 1 'to be' has been left but is understood.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Thanks, Sir. Can we do this only with verb 'want' or can it be done with other verbs also?
Hello again Wrakshamara,
There probably are a few other verbs that can be used in the same way, but I'm afraid I can't think of any off the top of my head.
A similar and very useful construction is 'have (or 'get') something done', which we use to speak about actions that we arrange for other people to do. For example, I can say 'I'm going to have my hair cut' or 'She's having her house painted' or 'We're getting our bicycles repaired'. In all of these cases, the subject is not the person cutting, painting or repairing, but they have arranged for other people to do these activities.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello teachers
can we use the noun "growth" instead of "growing up" in this sentence "This book is about growing up in a village" and the gerund "selling" instead of "sale" in this sentence "This book is for sale"? Thanks in advance.
Hello Ahmad Hassan,
No, I'm afraid neither of those alternative words is correct. I'd suggest looking up all of these words in the dictionary to see how they have different uses and connotations, but in general 'growing up' refers more to the development of a person from a psychological perspective than does 'growth', which tends to focus more on the biological organism.
In general, 'for sale' means it is available to buy; 'for selling' describes the purpose of the book.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again Mr.Kirk
What about the infinitives that have the same form as nouns, such as sleep, design ... etc
may I know what I can fill the blanks with?
1-" --------is good for your health." (sleep or sleeping)
2-" ------- well is good for health." (sleep or sleeping)
3-" He woke up after 3 hours of ------- ." (sleep or sleeping)
4-" He woke up after 3 hours of ------- in his bed. " (sleep or sleeping)
5-" She is good at ------- ." (design or designing)
6-" She is good at ------- dresses. " (design or designing)
thanks in advance
Hello Ahmed Hassan,
In these sentences, 'sleep' and 'design' are not infinitives -- they are nouns. Most bare infinitive forms are not also noun forms, but these two are an exception to that general rule.
You could use these noun forms correctly in sentences 1, 3, and 5. The '-ing' forms work best in the other three sentences.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevi,
The possessive adjective is my rather than mine.
It's possible to use either form here but the gerund is far more common. I think the infinitive is more often used in a conceptual sense, to describe the idea of something rather than the activity itself.
I wrote a little about this in an answer to another user:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/video-series/word-on-the-street/york/york-scene-2-language-focus#comment-171197
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nevı,
Actually, it's fine to simply say I like eating (pizza). 'Eating' means 'consuming food', so food is already part of its meaning.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nevi,
Many modern grammarians of English see this distinction (gerund vs present participle) as inappropriate for English and so prefer to simply use the term '-ing form' and identify different uses of a single form rather than trying to identify two distinct forms. Thus, I would simply say that 'after' is followed by an ing-form.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again Nevi,
Yes, in these kinds of sentences the performer of the action described in the participle clause is the same as the subject of the verb in the main clause. The time reference is also the same. For example:
You can read more about this on this page:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/intermediate-to-upper-intermediate/participle-clauses
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Parikenan,
No, that's not correct. It's clear from the sentence that the speaker (and listener) are not familiar with whatever difference there may be as the if-clause tells us that it is not even certain that there is a difference. Therefore 'the' is not appropriate.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Parikenan,
I'm afraid neither of those phrases is correct. If you mean 'company operations' and 'operations of the company', in general those mean the same thing.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Parikenan,
OK, now that I see the full context I understand. Yes, 'operational' is an adjective. The verb 'keep' is often used with a noun and adjective in this way. In this case, it means something like 'to cause the company to stay operational' -- in other words, the company has a better chance of surviving financial difficulties.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevı,
That's a very good question. I suppose it has something to do with how common the activities the words refer to are, but I'm afraid I'm not completely sure about that. If you can find a place to ask this question on the Cambridge Dictionary blog, they might be able to help you with the answer there.
If you find anything out, please let us know!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nevı,
Sentence 2 is fine! In sentence 1, while doesn't fit the meaning of the sentence. While introduces things happening at the same time, but I had been watching (past perfect continuous) shows this happened before the friends dropped in. I'd use the past continuous (was watching) here, or change while to after.
Does that make sense?
Have a look at these links for more explanation of the past perfect and past continuous.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi IjajKhan,
A couple of corrections are needed.
Also, in sentence 2, it would be more common to use 'were able to' instead of 'could'. Have a look at our Past ability page for more explanation about this. (See the 'Ability on one occasion – successful' section.)
About the differences, do you mean in the After + verb+ing part? Sentence 1 has a perfect participle, which emphasises that the action of 'spending 6 hours' is complete. Using a present participle would be fine here too (After spending 6 hours ...), and means the same thing. Sentence 2 has a present participle in the passive. You can find more information and examples about these structures on our Participle clauses page.
I hope it helps :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sai_Krishna1011,
I'd call 'getting dressed as a barbie doll' the noun phrase that is the object of the verb. You could further break down this noun phrase, of course.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Aysn,
1. As far as I know, yes, you can making a gerund from any verb. 'Promising' can be used as a gerund, e.g. 'Promising you everything will be fine is not something I can honestly do'.
2. As far as I know, this is a matter of usage. In other words, it's just the way people have come to use these words over time.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sai_Krishna1011,
It's important to distinguish between form and function. The form of all of these words is the same, but the function in the sentence is different.
In traditional grammars a distinction is drawn between the present participle (which can function as a verb or as an adjective) and the gerund (which functions as a noun). However, in most modern grammars this distinction is not seen as particularly useful and the term 'ing form' is preferred to describe the form, with the function is described according to each example.
In your first example, I think it's better to see 'lying' as a verb, heading a participle phrase with an adjectival function in the sentence. You can see the sentence as being a reduced relative clause: '...a woman who was lying...'
In your second sentence, 'learning' functions as a noun and is the object of 'enjoy'.
In your third sentence, 'learning' functions as a noun, and is the object of the preposition 'in'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nuro,
The main way is to look at the words and try to work out (1) if it's part of a verb pattern (e.g. learn to swim, prefer to arrive early, want to go home), where the meaning comes from the combination of the two verbs together, or (2) it answers the question 'Why?' or 'For what purpose?' In that case, it's the infinitive of purpose. For example:
You can find more explanation and examples on this page about 'to' infinitives. I hope it helps :)
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team