Learn Gerunds in English - How to Use Gerunds and Infinitives - Lesson Only

today we are going to talk about gerunds uh so  we're going to talk about what they are and how we  

use them so maybe you have heard this word before  or if you watched the live stream last week  

maybe you saw a little short section about  geron's but it's a big topic with many parts  

so today let's go ahead and talk about what  they are in detail so let's begin so number one  

what on earth is a girand what is that this  is a word a form that is derived from so this  

means comes from derived from comes from let's  write that there comes from a verb but functions  

as a noun so it works in this means works in  the sentence as a noun so you might think it's  

a verb but the way it is used in a sentence is  like a noun so uh in english gerunds end in ing  

always every time this is one way you can spot a  girond and we'll see some more ways later so for  

example let's take a look at this sentence running  is fun so in this sentence running is a gerund  

okay so why why is running age runt running refers  to an action right it's something we do so you may  

be thinking what isn't that a verb isn't running  a verb let's take a look at this sentence again to  

see why running is a noun in this sentence so  here we have our sentence running is fun okay  

and running is our jurund right well another way  we could write this sentence is this action is fun  

and another way we could write that is this thing  is fun and remember a thing is a noun so running  

is our noun in this sentence and as we go through  our lesson today oops we will be i'll say this  

thing right so running is fun this thing  this noun is fun so this is why uh so let's  

get a little deeper and learn more about gerunds  we're gonna look at a few more simple sentences  

okay here's a sentence form you probably use  in english pretty often when you talk about  

things you like so for example i like cooking  so here the subject in our sentence is i  

like is our verb and cooking is a noun or  in this case our gerund in the sentence  

and remember even though you might think oh  isn't cooking a verb well in this sentence  

it's the same as saying i like this thing so  cooking is a thing or a noun in this sentence okay  

let's look at one more well two more swimming is  my passion so here our gerund is swimming so it's  

in a different part of the sentence which we'll  talk about more so here's our gerund swimming

is is our verb and then here we have our  object my passion so here again it's the same  

as saying remember this is a noun in this sentence  this thing is my passion swimming is my passion  

so it works as a noun in this sentence not a verb  okay one more i enjoy singing so just like we saw  

with i like cooking i enjoy singing hear singing  is our gerund it's a noun in this sentence so here  

i is the subject enjoy is the verb and singing is  a noun i enjoy this thing this noun right so what  

can we notice again we can see that gerunds  always end in ing cooking swimming singing  

and they can come at different points in the  sentence which we'll talk about more oh our  

last one there's four let's go caroling so carol  ling is our gerund and if you don't know this word  

this is around christmas time maybe some people  will come to your door and sing christmas songs in  

english we call them christmas carols so we might  say you go caroling and here that is our gerund  

so our subject let's right you and i we our verb  go and caroling let's go do this thing right so  

caroling again here a gerund and uh we'll talk  about this more soon we often see geron's after  

the verb go so here are a few examples and let's  look closer there are many different ways to use  

gerunds and we're going to look at four right  now so we just saw some in those sentences first  

just like the sentence running is fun a gerund can  be the subject of a verb running is right swimming  

is my passion running is fun soju  runs can be the subject of a verb

number two jurun's can also be the object of  a verb for example uh i enjoy singing he likes  

running so it can also come after the verb in the  sentence soju runs can be the subject of a verb  

or the object of a verb pretty easy  i think and you probably use this  

already very often when you speak  english let's look at two more ways  

so we can use gerunds as the object of a  preposition so prepositions are words like  

of from and on and we typically use gerunds  after a preposition i am thinking of running  

so here's our preposition of and then our gerund  running so we'll look at some more examples of  

this on the next slide it can also be a subject  complement so this means it renames the subject  

for example my new hobby is running just like  i could say running is my new hobby can be  

the subject complement which means it renames the  subject so we're going to look a little closer at  

juron's coming after prepositions so juruns as we  saw can be objects of prepositions so let's take  

a look at a few sentences so i'm going to put  them up here so let's take a look at number one  

there is no way of knowing so here are  gerund knowing comes after the preposition of  

so this is uh really common in  english there is no way of knowing  

uh next sentence i learned from watching youtube  maybe for example today if you're watching  

on youtube you might tell someone i learned  english today from watching youtube so here  

we have our preposition from and because it's  a preposition after we use our gerund watching  

i learned from watching youtube i learned from  doing this thing right remember to runs are nouns  

and number three he's addicted to playing  computer games oh where'd my mouse go there we go  

okay so here we have two as our preposition  he's addicted to playing computer games okay  

so very often we see juruns  as objects of prepositions

another thing that we see with gerunds are gerund  phrases so even what we saw back here in this last  

sentence playing computer games this all kind of  works as one phrase right i'm not just talking  

about playing i'm talking about playing computer  games it works as one phrase so we would call this  

a gerund phrase so earlier we saw a sentence  swimming is my passion and in that sentence  

swimming is our gerund is is our verb and my  passion there we have the object of the sentence  

or the subject complement so here it's i could say  swimming is my passion swimming in the ocean is my  

passion uh or swimming is my passion here swimming  in the ocean is a gerund phrase why because it  

goes together and describes one thing right so  it's not just swimming anywhere is my passion  

one phrase swimming in the ocean is my passion so  we use it together this is called a gerund phrase  

next eating a piece of pie quickly is difficult  okay so here are gerund can you guess it now  

our gerund is eating so i could  say eating quickly is difficult  

but maybe i'm really trying to focus on this  one thing this one uh gerund phrase eating a  

piece of pie quickly is difficult so here this is  a gerund phrase i can't separate them right they  

stay together and describe one thing this thing is  difficult in this sentence we also see that like a  

verb gerunds can be modified by adverbs eating a  piece of pie quickly i could do the same thing up  

here swimming in the ocean slowly is my passion  right we can also modify gerunds and gerund  

phrases with adverbs like you would a normal  verb so it does keep some of those verb qualities  

okay last one james avoided doing his  homework so here james is our subject  

avoid it right oh stay away is our verb and doing  is our jurund right but i don't just want to say  

james avoided doing here doing his homework  is our gerund phrase it needs to stay together  

and it describes or talks about one thing so  this is very very common swimming in the ocean  

eating a piece of pie doing his homework these  stay together in the sentence as a gerund phrase

let's take a look at a few famous  quotes with gerunds and we'll see  

how they are used okay so here a quote from sir  ralph richardson acting is merely the art of  

keeping a large group of people from coughing  so here we actually see three gerons acting  

keeping and coughing so acting is the gerund as a  subject right just like running is fun acting is  

the art of da da da da keeping and coughing are  the objects of prepositions right remember we  

can use like of keeping from coughing right  uh so here we see our gerunds here are the  

objects of prepositions so these are all correct  ways to use gerunds okay let's go ahead generosity  

is giving more than you can and pride is taking  less than you need so here we have two gerunds  

giving and taking and these work the same way  these are subject complements so here oh keep  

losing my mouth sorry guys there we go so here  generosity is giving right subject complement  

it's replacing uh or another name for our  uh subject in the sentence generosity is  

pride is so here we use gerunds and last i love  acting it is so much more real than life so here  

this is the direct object of the verb love so we  see uh some simple ways and some more complex ways  

to use gerunds but also in these quotes you  see just how often we use gerunds in english  

okay so next we're going to look at gerunds  versus infinitives this can be a confusing  

point for english learners so today i want to show  you uh what this what these two things are and how  

to know when to use a gerund and when to use an  infinitive now first you might be thinking hmm  

what is an infinitive an infinitive is the base  form of a verb so to and our verb and here in  

the infinitive form the verb does not change no  s no ing nothing like that just base form for  

example to run to walk to c and so on so how do we  know when to use which well i'm going to show you  

some sentences for the next three slides and you  tell me or try to figure out which one is correct  

okay number one i suggested going to see a  movie or i suggested to go to see a movie  

now in number one we have a girond i suggested  going and in number two we have the infinitive  

i suggested to go so which  one do you think is correct

for this if you guessed number one ding  ding you are correct and why because  

only gerunds come after the verb suggest i suggest  going i suggest taking i suggest walking we always  

use a gerund after the verb suggest okay let's  do two more next one which one is correct i want  

going to school or i want to go to school so again  number one we have the gerund going and number two  

we have the infinitive i want to go so which one  do you think is correct hmm here number two is the  

correct answer and why because only infinitives  can come after the verb want so here we would  

never say i want going i want taking no no no  always an infinitive comes after the verb want

okay last one which one is correct i like to  run or i like running so what do you think  

which one of these is correct i like to run  are infinitive or i like running our toront

well this is a little bit of a trick  question because they are both correct  

because after the verb like you can  use either an infinitive or age runt oh  

wow so i think this is a little confusing  right some verbs are followed by gerunds  

some verbs are followed by infinitives and  some can be followed by either gerunds or  

infinitives so how can we maybe help ourselves  to figure out which we use oh excuse me

oh i have to sneeze sorry everyone okay tip  number one how to know when to use a girand  

or an infinitive tip number one you almost always  find a gerund after a preposition so remember our  

sentences there is no way of knowing right of is  a preposition and almost always we find agerund  

after a preposition so let's take a look  at some examples she is afraid of flying  

correct she is afraid of to fly no  right this would be the infinitive  

form and that's wrong because of is a  preposition so we want to use r to runt

here we have the sentence we saw in our previous  example i learned from watching youtube correct  

i learned from to watch youtube no and why  because from is a preposition so we don't  

want to use the infinitive form we want to  use the gerund so this is tip number one  

we almost always use gerunds after a preposition  okay tip number two when you are talking about  

an activity doing this thing you usually use a  gerund so for example i stopped smoking correct  

i stopped to smoke wrong so here the infinitive  would actually change the meaning of the sentence  

i stopped smoking means i stopped doing that  thing i do not smoke anymore i stopped smoking  

i stopped to smoke totally changes the meaning  of the sentence this means maybe i was walking  

and then i stopped smoked and continued i stopped  to do something no here if we're talking about an  

activity we usually use age of runt i  stopped smoking i stopped doing this thing  

we can describe many activities by using go  before a girand like let's go caroling let's go  

shopping right and here's one of our examples  let's go shopping or in the past tense we went  

skiing so we use uh we often use a  gerund after the different forms of  

go right present tense past tense and so on so  remember those two tips we often use a gerund  

after a preposition and we usually use  your runs when talking about an activity  

okay guys we're almost there so here i have five  sentences and i want you to help me figure out  

should i use the gerund the infinitive form or  could i maybe use both okay here we go number one  

i planned on blank a car so would i say i planned  on buying a car or i planned on to buy a car

here in number one i planned on buying a  car and why oh where's my mouse there we go  

because we have a preposition before  on is a preposition i planned on buying  

number two do you want to go blank do you  want to go running or do you want to go to run  

so here the correct answer would be do you want  to go running remember if we're describing an  

action which we often do with go we typically  or normally used to runs do you want to go  

running number three she started  blank the piano last year  

so what i say she started playing the piano  or she started to play the piano last year

uh here we could use playing she started  playing the piano last year so in this we  

have a gerund phrase playing the piano this all  stays together right she started doing this thing  

this noun last year she started  playing the piano last year

okay number four i like and then our verb read  so would i say i like to read or i like reading  

here we could use either i like to  read or i like reading excuse me

oh sorry guys so i like to read or i like reading  and why because with the verb like we can use the  

infinitive form or the gerund form and both are  okay okay last number five i hope blank to morocco  

and here we're using go so would i say i hope  to go to morocco or i hope going to morocco

here i hope to go just like the verb want we  can only use the infinitive form after the verb  

hope so there's a lot to remember right so we  are going to post this ppt and here is a list  

of all the different ways you can use verb so we  have all the verbs that only gerunds can follow  

like keep keep walking have trouble have trouble  doing we have our verbs that either a gerund or  

infinitive can come after and there's no change  in meaning like i like to run or i like running  

i love to play games or i love playing games a  gerund or an infinitive can follow these verbs  

but it may change the meaning i forget going  or i forgot to go right a little bit different  

next we have verbs uh that are only followed  by infinitives like want i want to go i hope  

to do i've learned to fly and finally a noun or  pronoun and an infinitive can follow these verbs