gerunds vs participle

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garima99: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 217; Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 9:42 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 8 times

by garima99 » Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:40 am

Playing cricket, he gained health.

Hunting deer is not allowed in this country.

would be call it gerund or participle ... I know off that the gerunds are nouns-verbs and participles are adjective-verbs... can anyone explain in more detail plz...it is very confusing...

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:40 am

EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:16 am

First one is a participle while second one is a gerund.

But, just to make things very clear with the Gerund, the correct answer, if the second one were to appear on GMAT, would be:

The hunting of deer is not allowed in this country.

Ashish
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garima99: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 217; Joined: Tue May 31, 2011 9:42 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 8 times

by garima99 » Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:43 am

How did you come to the conclusion that they are gerund ,participle....please explain

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EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Sun Aug 07, 2011 8:46 am

Hi Garima, would suggest you go thru the following link, which provides a lucid explanation of Participles and Gerunds.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/01/

Please post any follow up questions you might have.

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Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pmFollowed by: 45 members; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:12 pm

garima99 wrote:How did you come to the conclusion that they are gerund ,participle....please explain

In the first one, "playing" is modifying "he." In the second one, "Hunting" is the subject of the sentence. If the -ing word is modifying something, it's not a gerund.

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lunarpower: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3380; Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:20 amFollowed by: 1535 members; Thanked: 2256 times; GMAT Score:800

by lunarpower » Sat Aug 13, 2011 12:04 am

garima99 wrote:How did you come to the conclusion that they are gerund ,participle....please explain

you aren't always going to be able to use rules for this; in many cases, you'll have to use a combination of context + common sense.

e.g.

increasing tax rates will force many local stores to close.
--> the only reasonable interpretation of this sentence is that the tax rates ARE / WILL BE increasing. therefore, in this case "increasing" is an adjective (aka participle) describing "tax rates".

increasing tax rates is a bad idea for legislators who are seeking re-election.
--> the only reasonable interpretation of this sentence is that the ACT OF RAISING the tax rates is a bad idea. therefore, "increasing" itself is a noun (aka gerund) -- that's the thing that is a bad idea.

these two *look* identical, so you can't differentiate between them by using grammar alone. as in the case of just about everything else in SC, you'll usually have to understand the meaning of the sentence.

Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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On peut poser des questions Ã Ron en franÃ§ais
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EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Mon Aug 15, 2011 11:32 pm

As Ron suggests, the meaning really decides whether the "-ing" form is used as a Participle or a Gerund. However, two approximate techniques that often work:

1. Technique 1: This works especially for identifying Participial phrases. Try to add "the" before the "-ing" form of the verb. If the sentence becomes absolutely non-sensical, it is a participle. For example, following does not make sense "at all":

(The) Playing cricket, he gained health.

2. Technique 2: Unlike English, many other languages do not have this issue of using the same word ("-ing" form of verb) both as Participle and Gerund. So, translate the sentence into your native and see if you can make out the difference more easily.

In Hindi, for example (which you might know), if you translate the corresponding sentence and the translation of the "-ing" form ends in the Hindi "na", it is a Gerund, else it is a participle.

Hunting deer is not allowed in this country.

Hindi: Deers ko hunt karnaa is not allowed in this country.

Technique 2 almost always works:). While I have demonstrated it in one language for illustration, you can see if it works in the language that you know.

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saketk: Legendary Member; Posts: 608; Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 8 members; Thanked: 37 times

by saketk » Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:31 am

EducationAisle wrote:As Ron suggests, the meaning really decides whether the "-ing" form is used as a Participle or a Gerund. However, two approximate techniques that often work:

1. Technique 1: This works especially for identifying Participial phrases. Try to add "the" before the "-ing" form of the verb. If the sentence becomes absolutely non-sensical, it is a participle. For example, following does not make sense "at all":

(The) Playing cricket, he gained health.

2. Technique 2: Unlike English, many other languages do not have this issue of using the same word ("-ing" form of verb) both as Participle and Gerund. So, translate the sentence into your native and see if you can make out the difference more easily.

In Hindi, for example (which you might know), if you translate the corresponding sentence and the translation of the "-ing" form ends in the Hindi "na", it is a Gerund, else it is a participle.

Hunting deer is not allowed in this country.

Hindi: Deers ko hunt karnaa is not allowed in this country.

Technique 2 almost always works:). While I have demonstrated it in one language for illustration, you can see if it works in the language that you know.

Hi Ashish, your Tip 1 does not hold true in case of the two examples given by Ron. If you put The in front of "increasing tax rates will force many local stores to close. " it makes sense. on the contrary, it makes the other sentence awkward-- Theincreasing tax rates is a bad idea for legislators who are seeking re-election -- which is a Gerund.. But, the Hindi part definitely works in both the cases.

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EducationAisle: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 434; Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:42 pmFollowed by: 46 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 91 times

by EducationAisle » Tue Aug 16, 2011 9:37 am

Actually if you read my post, Technique 1 works well mostly when Participles are used a classical "phrases" (and not as "pure-play" adjectives used directly in front of nouns, as in Ron's example).

But if you are more comfortable with Technique 2, absolutely use it by all means...as my mail suggests, it is more fool-proof:).

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mundasingh123: Legendary Member; Posts: 2330; Joined: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:14 amFollowed by: 26 members; Thanked: 56 times

by mundasingh123 » Wed Aug 17, 2011 1:07 am

Ron

increasing tax rates is a bad idea for legislators who are seeking re-election.
--> the only reasonable interpretation of this sentence is that the ACT OF RAISING the tax rates is a bad idea. therefore, "increasing" itself is a noun (aka gerund) -- that's the thing that is a bad idea.

Ron I could make out that the act of RAISING is the one that is a bad idea because of the singular verb . Since the verb is plural, it cant be the tax rates that are a bad idea .
But the first sentence that you quoted as an example

increasing tax rates will force many local stores to close.

i feel that the act of RAISING tax rates could also force local stores to close .
So , at best , this example is ambiguous

I Seek Explanations Not Answers

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