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Verbs with “-ing” are either gerunds (resembling nouns) or participles (resembling adjectives)
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
Adding -ing to a verb gives it the properties of either an adjective or a noun. In the first case, it is sometimes a participle (of the so-called “present” variety), sometimes a true adjective (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending). In the second case, it is sometimes a gerund and sometimes a true noun (see 240. Nouns that End with “-ing”).
The participle and gerund uses of -ing are considered individually in this blog in 52. Participles Placed Just After their Noun and 70. Gerunds. There is also a separate post on participles and gerunds made with having (267. Participles and Gerunds with “Having”). Here, -ing participles and gerunds are considered together in order to highlight their similarities and differences.
The two main similarities between -ing participles and gerunds are their ability to describe a directly-following noun, and, in other situations, their retention of verb properties like having a subject/object and being usable with an adverb. Differences within these areas are as follows.
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DIFFERENCES WITH A DIRECTLY-FOLLOWING NOUN
Participles describing a directly-following noun are practically the same as adjectives. Examples are a helping hand (similar to a supportive hand), falling prices (cp. low prices) and boiling water (cp. hot water). Like adjectives, these -ing forms can be placed after their noun with that is or that are in between, e.g. a hand that is helping/ friendly, prices that are falling/ low (some can even drop that is/are, e.g. the picture emerging – see 52. Participles Placed Just after their Noun).
Gerunds, by contrast, describe a following noun just as ordinary nouns can (see 38. Nouns Used Like Adjectives). Examples are a walking stick, a driving lesson and opening times. One indication that this use is more noun-like is its inability to be paraphrased with that is/are without making unlikely phrases like *a stick that is walking. Another indication is that the -ing word can follow its noun with a preposition in between: a stick for walking, a lesson about/in driving, times of opening (see 136. Types of Description by Nouns). Moreover, pre-noun gerunds often have more spoken emphasis than participles (see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #4).
With a few -ing verbs, the tests for both a participle and a gerund succeed. For example, a smoking room can become either a room that is smoking (participle) or a room for (tobacco) smoking (gerund). This does not, however, make the test invalid; it merely shows that some -ing words can describe a following noun as either a participle or a gerund, the meaning being different in each case (see 124. Structures with a Double Meaning 1, #1).
These features of pre-noun gerunds and participles even exist when they have an object, as in house-hunting days and time-consuming chores. The former involves a gerund because with reversed order of or for is necessary; the latter involves a participle because it needs which are. A further difference here is that the former can stand alone in noun positions (e.g. house hunting is…), whereas the latter cannot (see the end of 223. Uses of Hyphens). For more participle examples, see the end of 106. Word-like Suffixes.
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DIFFERENCES WHEN “-ing” WORDS DO NOT DESCRIBE A DIRECTLY-FOLLOWING NOUN
Participles and gerunds are both more like verbs when they are not describing a following noun, but the fundamental adjective/noun difference is still evident. .
1. Usage at the Start of a Sentence
The difference can be seen in these examples:
(a) Travelling at over 200 km/h, the new trains make a huge difference. (PARTICIPLE)
(b) Travelling at over 200 km/h makes a huge difference. (GERUND)
The word travelling in both sentences is like a verb because it has an adverbial phrase, at over 200 km per hour. Other -ing words might have an object, e.g. transporting passengers above instead of travelling. At the same time, however, the participle use of travelling in (a) is like an adjective, while the gerund use in (b) is like a noun.
Travelling is like an adjective in (a) because it has a neighbouring noun (trains) to describe (see 6. Adjectives with no Noun 1: People-Naming). This use of a participle before its noun is not the same as the one considered earlier; it allows words to be placed in between, plus a comma (see 75. How to Avoid “Dangling” Participles). The participle can also follow its noun:
(c) The new trains, travelling at over 200 km/h, make a huge difference.
Commas may or may not be needed in such cases: the rules are the same as for commas with who, which and that (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas and 52. Participles Placed Just After their Noun).
In (b), on the other hand, there is no neighbouring noun for travelling to describe. Therefore travelling, not trains, has to be the subject of the verb makes, so that it is acting like a noun and must be a gerund. This use of gerunds can look very like the noun-describing one. Consider the following:
(d) Growing vegetables requires time and money.
How can we tell that the noun vegetables here is the object of growing and not “described” by it? The clue is the singular form of the verb (requires). This prevents the plural vegetables from being the subject, so that growing must be the subject instead, with vegetables its object (giving the meaning “causing vegetables to grow”).
If the verb had been require, the subject would have been vegetables, and growing would have had to be a gerund or participle describing it (a participle is actually more likely, because it creates a more likely meaning, “vegetables which are growing”, than the gerund meaning “vegetables for growing”).
Unfortunately, if the noun after the -ing word is singular, the main verb ending cannot help, with the result that a double meaning can occur, like this:
(e) Cooking chocolate is good for you.
It is not clear whether this is about “the cooking of chocolate” (gerund + object) or “chocolate for cooking” (gerund + described noun). It could even mean “chocolate which is cooking” (participle + described noun). Usually, however, the intended meaning of this structure will, like that of most other ambiguous ones, be made clear by the context of its use (see 124. Structures with a Double Meaning 1, #1).
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2. Usage Later in a Sentence
One familiar later use of -ing participles is actually inside a main verb to form “continuous” tenses, e.g.:
(f) The frequency of floods is increasing.
This use has to be distinguished from that of BE with an adjective-like -ing word that is an adjective rather than participle, such as interesting. Words like interesting after BE in a sentence like (f) would be a “complement” of BE rather than forming a verb tense with it (see 220. Features of Complements).
Gerunds after BE can only be complements, corresponding to noun / pronoun ones:
(g) Seeing is believing.
(h) The solution is eating less.
One way of deciding whether an -ing verb after BE is a participle (making a continuous tense) or a gerund (making a complement) is to see if the words the action (or the state) of are a logical addition just before: they should be only before gerunds. This happens in (g) and (h), and also in the following problematic case from the post 69. How Computers Get Grammar Wrong (2):
(i) The key to sounding formal in writing is knowing which words to avoid.
The underlined words here resemble the present continuous tense of KNOW, but they are not that because of both the normal inability of KNOW to be used in continuous tenses and the illogical meaning that would be created. The meaning is much more logical if we take is to be the ordinary non-auxiliary use of BE and knowing to be a gerund meaning “the state of knowing”.
Participles and gerunds after a verb are often in the “object” position. Participles always need a nearby noun (or equivalent); gerunds sometimes have one and sometimes do not. Consider this:
(j) The plan involves trains.
The presence of the object noun trains here means a participle can accompany it. Expressing the idea of “which” + verb, a participle would be understood as classifying trains but not naming a train action involved in the plan. A lone participle, e.g. speeding, would have to go before trains, while one with its own object or adverb, e.g. speeding at 200 km/h, would go after (see 109. Placing an Adjective after its Noun).
On the other hand, if speeding is a gerund, it will mean “speeding by trains” rather than “trains which are speeding”, and it will indicate what the plan involves. This use of speeding could simply replace trains in (j), but it could also accompany it, positioned after regardless of whether or not there is a following object or adverb.
These requirements mean that the usage of the participle and the gerund is the same when they follow an object noun along with their own object or adverb (…trains speeding at 200 km/h), so that there can be uncertainty about the intended meaning (see 257. Structures with a Double Meaning 4, #2).
A problem with expressing the gerund meaning in the object position is that a gerund is not the only possibility. Common alternatives are the to (infinitive) form of a verb and ordinary tense forms after conjunctions like that or whether. The correct choice usually depends on what the main verb is. For some common verbs that need or allow a following -ing, see 232. Verbs with an Object + “-ing”. For examples of verbs followed by that, see 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”; for verbs followed by to, see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive.
One other late-sentence use of participles is at the end but describing the subject:
(k) The new trains will make a huge difference travelling at over 200 km/h.
In addition to describing a much earlier noun, delayed participles like this often suggest the idea of “how” (as here) or “while” or “and” (see 101. Add-On Participles).
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PRACTICE EXERCISE
Nouns described by an –ing word before them are very common in English. Many combinations of this type, indeed, have evolved into “fixed” phrases (see 320. Special Participle Uses, #7). In the following task, see how easily you can tell whether each -ing word is a gerund or a participle (answers below).
1. a walking stick
2. thinking time
3. a defining moment
4. a compelling reason
5. meeting rooms
6. taxing work
7. an opening ceremony
8. pressing matters
9. a sticking point
10. a living wage
11. a helping hand
12. passing ability
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Answers
1. GERUND: a stick for walking; 2. GERUND: time for thinking; 3. PARTICIPLE: a moment that defines; 4. PARTICIPLE: a reason that compels … (…action to be taken); 5. GERUND: rooms for holding meetings; 6. PARTICIPLE: work that taxes (= demands energy); 7. PARTICIPLE: a ceremony that opens; 8. PARTICIPLE: matters that press (for attention); 9. GERUND: a point where things may get stuck; 10. GERUND: a wage for staying alive; 11. PARTICIPLE: a hand that helps; 12. GERUND: ability in passing (a ball to another player)
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