Today let's talk about gerunds!

Hmm~ gerunds are mysterious creatures

They resemble verbs, but they're nouns

and they even look the same as so many adjectives

What the...?

And their English name is "gerund"

Gerund?

Sounds like a virus' name

The Gerund Virus

Anyway today we're going to learn about gerunds, which are everywhere in our life

What's the definition of a gerund?

First, a gerund is a verb plus "ing"

For example, add "ing" to "swim", then we have "swimming"

This is a gerund

Teacher teacher, why does a verb become a noun after we add "ing" to it?

For example, I am swimming

Mom told me this is a progressive tense

You liar!

Uh lil Ray, don't lose control

Indeed, gerunds are sometimes mixed up with other identical words

Take your question for example

The "swimming" in "I am swimming"

is a progressive tense indeed

It's a genuine verb!

Teacher teacher, how do I know when it's a verb

when it's a noun?

They look exactly the same!

Lil Ray, it's easy

If it's a progressive tense

there must be a be verb in front as an auxiliary verb

such as "is, are, am"

So "I am swimming" is a progressive tense

Teacher, what about swimming pool?

Is it also a gerund?

Hey lil Ray you really have so many questions

but you still asked a good one

The "swimming" in "swimming pool" is neither a noun nor a verb

It's an

adjective

What!

All the questions above are related to the part of speech and a word's role in a sentence

Take a look at "swimming pool." "Swimming" is before "pool"

It's called a "present participle"

You don't have to understand this

But basically

It serves as an adjective to further explain the noun after it, pool

Gerunds, as the name implies, serve as "nouns" in a sentence

So basically, the positions for nouns can be filled in with gerunds

So today I'm gonna introduce

the 3 positions of a sentence you can put a gerund in

that is, the subject, the object, and the complement

First, take what Crown usually says for example

"I'm hungry" 我餓了

(Hey~ I did not!)

So here, "I" is a noun, serving as the subject of the sentence

Let's take a look at an example when a gerund serves as the subject of the sentence

The "smoking" here is the subject of the sentence

The "eating too much" here

is a gerund phrase, serving as the subject of the sentence

Then let's take a look at the object position

Take what I usually say for example

"My sister ate all the food" 我的妹妹把食物都吃光了

(Hahaha! I DID NOT!)

I'm hungry too! She always eats all the food!

The "food" here is a noun, also called the object, because in this sentence it receives the action

Next let's take a look at some examples where a gerund serves as the object of the sentence

The gerund "teaching English" here is the object of the sentence

The gerund "waking up early" is the object of the sentence

Next we have another kind of object, which is called the object of the preposition

Basically it's a noun after the preposition

Like "in this house," the "house" here is the object of the preposition

No matter how complicated its name seems

as long as it's a noun, it can be replaced by a gerund

So now let's take a look at an example where a gerund serves as the object of the preposition

Please don't roast me. I'll cry

The "making you laugh" here is the object of the preposition, at

Just kidding, you don't have to pay

The gerund "watching my videos" here is the object of the preposition, for

The last one is more difficult, nouns serving as the complement

What is a complement?

A complement further explains other words

It can be a noun or an adjective

But today we'll focus on the noun form

Here's a simple example

Ray is a...

How do we say "YouTuber" in Mandarin?

你...你管人，你管人

Ray is a "你管人"

Alright, the "YouTuber" here is a noun, serving as a complement to modify the subject in front, Ray

which means Ray is equal to a YouTuber

Since a complement can be a noun, it can also be a gerund

Here are some examples

The gerund "interacting with my fans" here is a complement

modifying the subject, "what I like as a YouTuber"

As a side note

Although there is a be verb "is" before "interacting"

it's not a progressive tense!

The "is" here is not an auxiliary verb. It's a verb

Also, "interacting" isn't a progressive action. It just means this matter

Here are some examples

(Bullsh*t XD !!!)

The gerund "eating my food" here is a complement modifying the object, Crown

She ate my food

The gerund "being with you" here is a complement modifying the adjective, happy

The above is the entire observation journal of gerunds

This creature is extremely complex!

Hope you guys have a better understanding of gerunds after watching this video

Last, I have 2 tips for you

First, basically we can put a gerund where we put a noun

namely the subject, the object, and the complement positions

Second, gerunds, progressive verb forms, present participles

sometimes look the same, so don't be mixed up

Teacher, I just fell asleep. Can you explain it again?

Watch the video one more time

If you like this video, please give me a thumbs up!

If you want to see more videos

you can click the subscribe button here to subscribe to my channel!

We have new videos up every Mon and Thurs at 9 PM

Have you watched Crown's video last Thursday?

That's right. Our new policy is

Ray will host the videos on Mondays

and my sister, Crown, will host the videos on Thursdays

I believe you guys all love it

But I know you'd prefer Ray's videos on Mondays

(Ahaha of course not~) Right? Right!?

Either way

you can still see Crown's new video on Thursday

I also have Facebook and Instagram accounts

You can find me by typing in 阿滴英文 or Ray Du English

And that is a wrap, thank you guys for watching, as always

and I'll catch you guys next time! See ya!