I know Halloween is a favorite holiday for many of you who like getting creative with costumes (and for those of us who just like the candy).
Personally, I love seeing all the cute little kids, especially in adorable animal costumes like my fluffy niece in the pic above.
For this Writing Wednesday, we’re going to talk about a part of speech that likes to dress up as something else from time to time: the verb.Â
Everything centers on the verb: it tells us what happened (action), when it happened (time/tense), and it has to agree with the subject (person, place or thing that’s doing the action).
Sometimes verbs get tired of all that pressure, and they take a step back from their central role.
When verbs dress up as nouns, we call them GERUNDS. Here are a few things to learn about these little shape-shifters.
Note: In the examples below, GERUNDS are underlined and VERBS are in bold.
| When verbs act like nouns, they put on an -ing costume. |
| “Kids dress up on Halloween.” (verb = dress up) “Dressing up on Halloween is also fun for adults.” (verb = is) “To dress up” is normally a verb (an action), but in the second sentence, it’s acting like a noun so it’s wearing an -ing. |
| The main verb shows the time (tense) of the action. |
| A gerund never changes tense because it has taken on the role of a noun instead. “When I was a kid, we went trick-or-treating with friends around our neighborhood after dark.” (past tense verb = went) “Going trick-or-treating with a group was safer and more fun.” (“went” became “going”) |
| When a gerund is the subject of a sentence, the verb is always singular. |
| “Families turn off their front porch lights when they run out of candy.” “Turning off your front porch lights shows that you’re out of candy.” (singular verb = shows, not “show”; the verb agrees with the subject and a gerund-subject is always singular). |
| Gerunds can also be objects. |
| “Some kids enjoy saving their candy for months.” (“saving” is in the object position, after the verb) “Saving candy is better than eating it all at once.” (“saving” is the subject and “eating” is the object, but both are gerunds) |
- Some verbs are always followed by a gerund.
“He couldn’t help eating all the candy.”
- Other verbs can be followed by a different verbal called an infinitive (to + verb).
“She asked to go trick-or-treating again.” (“ask” + going isn’t correct)
- Some verbs can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive with no change in meaning.
“She loves to dress up on Halloween.”
“She loves dressing up on Halloween.”
- But with a few verbs, the meaning changes.
“I remembered to buy the candy” (I bought it.)
“I remembered buying the candy.” (I think I bought it…I remember doing it but did I?)
Want to practice? Check out these exercises!