2020-02-05 Grammar: gerunds

Greg Malivuk
gmalivuk@staffordhouse.com
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all classes
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Some verbs are directly followed by the infinitive:
p. 96 exercise 7
2 Most children in elementary school learn to speak English.
6 Selfish people rarely offer to help people.
11 Most American teenagers can’t wait to drive a car.
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Some other verbs are followed by an object before the infinitive.
(If the object is the same as the subject, use a “self” pronoun.)
p. 97 exercise 9 - Think of additional information to make sentences with these pairs of verbs.
1 I’ll remind myself to pay my phone bill.
6 Your parents forbid you to marry a foreigner.
8 My teacher teaches me to speak English.
13 The doctor told him to eat healthier.
14 She encourages us to ask many questions.
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Some of these verbs take the gerund if they’re general (for everyone) rather than to one specific person.
Most doctors advise eating at least three servings of vegetables a day.
My doctor advised me to eat more vegetables.
	(advise, allow, encourage, forbid, permit, require)
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Gerunds, like infinitives, can include additional information:

affirmative/negative
I don’t enjoy waking up early on weekdays, so I enjoy not waking up early on Sundays.
= I wake up early on weekdays and it makes me unhappy. I sleep late on Sundays and it makes me happy.

active/passive
I enjoy learning new things in class. = I enjoy being taught new things in class.

simple/perfect
I worry about failing my test. = I might fail it in the future, and this worries me.
I worry about having failed my test. = I might have already failed it, and this worries me.

(Perfect gerunds are not very common, and we never use progressive gerunds.)
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Because gerunds are like nouns, we can use possessives with them.
“We didn’t plan for their having problems over the weekend.”
“Her singing is fantastic, but his singing is really annoying.”
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p. 109 exercise 2 - Write sentences with gerund phrases.
1 I like being asked for my suggestions about ways to improve my language skills.
`	(“I like to be asked” is also grammatically correct, but here we’re practicing gerunds.)
2 Your teacher really appreciates your having been so careful with this homework.
3 Mary suspected John of planning to contact Charlie’s old girlfriend.
4 The teacher didn’t plan on the students’ having completely forgotten the grammar rules.
5 I think that John is disappointed about not being selected for the scholarship.
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The government suspects him of planning a terrorist attack.
	= They think he is currently planning a future attack.
The government suspects him of having planned a terrorist attack.
	= They think he has already planned the attack.
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Homework: Focus 7 - Read the explanations for how to chose between gerunds and infinitives.