The Gerund

The Forms of the Gerund | Active | Passive | Indefinite | writing | being written | Perfect | having written | having been written | THE GERUND The nominal characteristics | The verbal characteristics | 1*.can perform the function of subject, object and predicative. [e.g. They say smoking leads to meditation. (Collins) (SUBJECT) I like making people happy. (Shaw) (OBJECT) The duty of all progressive mankind is fighting for peace.(PREDICATIVE)] | 1. *of transitive verbs can take a direct object.[e.g. I had now made a good progress in understanding and speaking their language. (Swift)] | 2.*can be preceded by a preposition. [e.g. I am very, very tired of rowing. (Hemingway)] | 2.* can be modified by an adverb. [e.g. She burst out crying bitterly. (Hardy)] | 3.*can be modified by a noun in the possessive case or by a possessive pronoun. [e.g. Is there any objection to my seeing her? (Galsworthy) Кто-нибудь возражает против того, чтобы я повидался с ней?] | 3.* has tense distinctions; * of transitive verbs has also voice distinctions. | *developed from the verbal noun, which in course of time became verbalized preserving at the same time its nominal character. | * is formed by adding the suffix -ing to the stem of the verb, and coincides in form with Participle I. |

In the Russian Language (a)by a noun [Dancing had not begun yet... (Mansfield) Танцы еще не начались.] | (b)by an infinitive [It is no good hiding our heads under our wings. (Galsworthy)-Бесполезно прятать голову под крыло.] | (c)by деепричастие[And without waiting for her answer he turned and left us. (Da Maurier)- И, не дожидаясь ее ответа, он повернулся и вышел.] | (d)by a subordinate clause [Не regretted now having come. (Galsworthy)- Теперь он сожалел, что пришел.] |

The tense distinctions of the gerund 1. The Indefinite Gerund Active and Passive | 2. The Perfect Gerund | an Indefinite Gerund (a prior