What Is a Gerund? Rules and Gerund Examples

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If you’re learning English, you’ve probably seen hundreds of words ending in -ing. Some are gerunds, but not all of them are. The word’s job in the sentence tells you which form you’re looking at.

In “Swimming is my favourite hobby”, swimming is a gerund. It comes from the verb swim, but the whole activity is the subject of the sentence. In “I am swimming”, however, am swimming is a present continuous verb phrase.

This guide uses the traditional learner-friendly definition: a gerund is an -ing verb form used in a noun-like role. Some modern grammar books group gerunds and present participles together as “-ing forms”, so don’t be surprised if you see different labels elsewhere.

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What Is a Gerund?

A gerund is the -ing form of a verb used in a place where you could use a noun phrase. It can be a subject, a complement or an object. It still has some verb-like features too: it can take an object or be modified by an adverb.

Here are three gerunds used as subjects:

• Singing is my passion.
• Hiking is my favourite activity.
• Going to the gym is how she starts her day.

In each sentence, the gerund names the activity that the rest of the sentence describes. Singing, for example, is the subject of “Singing is my passion”.

A gerund can also be the head of a longer gerund phrase. The phrase may include an object, a complement or a modifier:

• Camping in the wilderness is my favourite summer activity.
• She loves reading mystery novels before bed.

In the first sentence, camping in the wilderness is the complete subject, and in the wilderness modifies camping. In the second, reading mystery novels before bed is the object of loves; mystery novels is the object of reading, and before bed adds the time.

That mixture of noun-like and verb-like behaviour is what makes gerunds useful. A short phrase such as “watching films” names a general activity, while “watching action films on New Year’s Eve” makes the activity much more specific.

To distinguish a gerund from a present participle, look at its function:

• Gerund: “Swimming is good exercise.” The activity is the subject.
• Part of a continuous verb phrase: “She is swimming.” The auxiliary is and the -ing form make the present continuous.
• Participle used like an adjective: “The swimming child waved.” Swimming describes the child.

The present continuous often describes an action in progress now or around now, but it has other uses too, including temporary situations and arranged future plans. So the test is grammatical function, not simply whether the action is happening at this exact moment.

Gerund Examples in Four Grammatical Roles

You’ll find gerunds and gerund phrases in four especially common roles: subject, direct object, object of a preposition and subject complement. You don’t need to name the role every time you speak, but recognising the patterns makes new examples easier to understand.

Gerunds are common after verbs such as enjoy, imagine and mind. They are also correct after love, like and hate, although those three verbs can take a to-infinitive as well. We’ll look at that choice later.

Sentence	Gerund or Gerund Phrase	Grammatical Role	Audio
“Walking is good for your health.”	“Walking”	Subject
“Cooking dinner every night can be tiring.”	“Cooking dinner every night”	Subject
“She enjoys hiking on weekends.”	“Hiking on weekends”	Direct object of enjoys
“They can't imagine living without their smartphones!”	“Living without their smartphones”	Direct object of imagine
“I love sleeping under the stars.”	“Sleeping under the stars”	Direct object of love
She exercises before going to work.	“Going to work”	Object of the preposition before
“After finishing his exams, he went out with his friends.”	“Finishing his exams”	Object of the preposition after
“Your favourite hobby is knitting colourful scarves.”	“Knitting colourful scarves”	Subject complement

In “Do you mind switching seats with me?”, mind is followed by an -ing form. The question is a conventional polite request. Here, switching seats with me names the action you’re asking the other person to consider.

How to Form Gerunds in English

Start with the base form of the verb, not the word to. Most verbs simply add -ing: work becomes working. A few spelling patterns need extra attention:

• For many verbs ending in e, drop the e: write → writing and have → having.
• For verbs ending in -ie, change -ie to -y: lie → lying and tie → tying.
• Double the final consonant in short stressed patterns such as run → running and admit → admitting. Don’t double it in visit → visiting, where the final syllable is unstressed.
• Keep the final e in forms such as seeing and agreeing.

The spelling rules make the same -ing form whether it is acting as a gerund or as a participle. The sentence tells you its grammatical role.

Base Verb	-ing Form	Example with a Gerund	Audio
be	being	Being on time is important.
do	doing	I prioritise doing my homework after school.
eat	eating	I love eating with chopsticks.
drink	drinking	He quit drinking two years ago.
go	going	They talked about going skiing this winter.
know	knowing	Knowing a second language is useful.
work	working	Working from home has its perks.
run	running	Running is great cardio exercise.
try	trying	Trying new things keeps life exciting.
take	taking	Taking notes helps you remember things.
think	thinking	Try thinking outside the box.
write	writing	Consider writing a journal to feel better.

Gerund vs Infinitive: How Do You Know Which One to Choose?

When one verb follows another, the first verb often controls the form of the second. Some patterns take an -ing form, some take to + base verb, and some allow both. It is more accurate to learn the whole pattern than to assume that every verb belongs to one permanent list.

For example, enjoy is normally followed by -ing: “She enjoys hiking.” Decide is normally followed by a to-infinitive: “I decided to go.” “I decided going” is not standard in that meaning.

Love, like and hate can take either form: “I love running” and “I love to run” are both grammatical. The difference is often small, although the -ing form can put more emphasis on the activity or experience, while the to-infinitive can put more emphasis on a habit, preference or result.

These examples use correct verb + -ing patterns:

Verb	Common Pattern	Example Sentence	Audio
love	-ing or to-infinitive	I love running in the morning.
like	-ing or to-infinitive	She likes painting in her free time.
avoid	normally -ing	He avoids talking about his problems.
consider	normally -ing	They are considering moving to a new city.
miss	normally -ing	She misses living near the ocean.
mind	normally -ing	Do you mind switching seats with me?
hate	-ing or to-infinitive	I hate cleaning the bathroom.
keep	normally -ing	You keep complaining about the weather.
start	-ing or to-infinitive	I started working when I was 18.
finish	normally -ing	She finished reading the book last night.

The to-infinitive is to + the base form, as in to go, to learn and to help. It is different from a bare infinitive without to, which appears after verbs such as make and let.

These examples use common verb + to-infinitive patterns:

Verb	Example Sentence	Audio
decide	I decided to go to sleep early today.
hope	She hopes to start her new job next week.
need	You need to exercise more.
agree	We agreed to meet for lunch.
want	Do you want to come to my party tomorrow?
learn	He learned to play the piano when he was young.
fail	They failed to pass the exam.
choose	We chose to stay home tonight.
offer	She offered to help me with my move.

With a few verbs, changing the form changes the meaning. Compare these pairs:

• “I stopped smoking” means I quit the activity. “I stopped to smoke” means I paused another activity in order to smoke.
• “I remembered locking the door” refers to a memory of the action. “I remembered to lock the door” means I didn’t forget to do it.
• “Try restarting the phone” suggests an experiment that might solve a problem. “Try to restart the phone” focuses on making the attempt.

There isn’t one shortcut for every verb pattern. Learn a new verb with a short example, then notice the same pattern while reading and listening. That gives you something more useful than memorising two disconnected lists.

Practise Gerunds in Real English

Start by collecting one example for each common role: a gerund as subject, direct object, object of a preposition and subject complement. Then compare a few verbs that take -ing, a few that take a to-infinitive and one pair where the meaning changes.

For a wider look at why English can be approachable, have a look at the Why English Is Easy ebook. You can also use these free online English lessons to find more examples in context.

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