I like gerund

[avrelia]

I have a question for my friends’ list and the passers-by.

How did you feel when you first discovered (was taught about) the existence of gerund?

Today we studied verbal phrases, gerunds, participles, and infinitives in my grammar class. Two thirds of the class are people for whom English is the native language. Only I and two Chinese girls were rather nonchalant about the whole gerund thing. Confusion, puzzlement, and some kind of torpor ruled the others. But I remember the first time I found out about gerunds: I was fifteen, and I was indignant about their existence. They didn’t fit into my view of the languages, and I had enough trouble to reconcile with tenses to be bothered by gerund.

Eventually I got used to them, and now I like gerunds very much.

What about you?

Comments

[ascian3.livejournal.com]

I thought it was some sort of small rodent. :-)

Actually, I'm still not really sure I could define one, though I'm pretty sure I use them all the time.

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

*loves you for posting about parts of speech*

I don't have strong feelings about gerunds, although now that I think about it, they let us make words like "feelings" willy-nilly from any verb available, which is fun. We wouldn't be able to say things like "sucks beyond the telling of it" without them, or "the sucking of . . . " Uh, never mind.

I've always been annoyed by the "don't split an infinitive" rule, which I believe was created by grammarians who pointed out that you don't split infinitives in Latin. Latin infinitives are all single words, and I want to boldy split infinitives where they have never been split before.

I also remember the sentence used somewhere back in grade school to teach us not to dangle participles. "Walking to school, the horse ran away." I always liked that image of the horse walking to school. The walking to school of the horse was to my liking.

[oyceter]

Gerunds (and infinitives and participials) confused me a great deal when I first learned about them, but after a few exercises, I geeked out and thought they were really cool.

Of course, I speak as one who adores the subjunctive mode. For years and years Bon Jovi always used to exasperate me because one of his songs that I liked had the lyrics "If I was him..." and I could not for the life of me figure out why it sounded wrong when "I was" agreed. Then I learned about subjunctive mode and voila, everything made sense!

Hee, grammar geeks unite!

[dtissagirl.livejournal.com]

Portuguese is a somewhat gerund-heavy language [specially when spoken], so it's not so much a question of liking them so much as needing them.

But something funny is happening lately. The "going to [verb]" form -- you know, that indicates immediate future -- that the English language has is being incorporated to the Portuguese spoken by telemarketers, secretaries, office people. We actually call this weird phenomena "gerundism" [well, but in Portuguese *g*].

Now. Our verbes have tenses and conjugations. So you *don't need* that kind of aggregation of verbs to speak -- you can simply turn the verb into its immediate future tense [because we actually have that]. But people insist on using the English way, only in Portuguese. It sounds downright silly.

So there you go. :)

[lynnb.livejournal.com]

I'm with ascian, I couldn't name one to save my life, but I'm sure I have used them :)

My English teachers confused me terribly. My eighth grade English teacher said that learning grammar and diagramming sentences was a waste of time. My high school freshman English teacher said it was the only way to learn the parts of speech. I lived in mortal fear of being called to the blackboard to diagram a sentence! I managed to eke out a passing grade, but to this day I feel grammar challenged.

[jonesiexxx.livejournal.com]

I'm still not really sure I could define one, though I'm pretty sure I use them all the time.

Maybe Justice Stewart got his ideas on obscenity from learning about gerunds as a lad.

(I'm such a wonk, I don't know which of my references is abstruse or not. If consecutive translation is required, please just tap me on the shoulder).

[jonesiexxx.livejournal.com]

to this day I feel grammar challenged.

Me too! Me too!

I never make grammatical errors (except intentionally when I'm Buffy talky, or for effect when I'm writing ad copy or speeches). But ask me to splain the diff between a participle and a gerund?

*drools and crosses eyes... contemplates dotting tees*

[ascian3.livejournal.com]

Hee. I know it when I see it... used in a sentence! Hah!

And, nah: I get it. :-)

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

And Russian doesn't have gerunds at all. And only three tenses - it has other things to express various time relationship, and I was terribly confused with English tenses, so the existence of gerund was the last straw at the moment.

I haven't seen Russian incorporating English grammar constuctions (though I am guilty on using them occasionally), but a lot of English words have been recently adopted, and they look really ugly and often unnecessary.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

But ask me to splain the diff between a participle and a gerund?

well, the former works as adjective, the latter as noun. I, on the contrary, tend to use them incorrectly, knowing the rules.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Well, all my teachers would have been shocked if told that grammar is a waste of time.

I think we were studying grammar (Russian) at school for eight years (in variuos doses and degrees). and the study of English started with grammar. I am not sure though whether it would help if one isn't interested in writing one way or the other.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I thought it was some sort of small rodent. :-)

Hee!

I think I use them too, by now, but when I started to learn about them, they were just an abstract construction to me, completely alien. ;-)

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of my initial confusion came from the fact, that they were abstract grammar constructions first, and only later they settled into my veiw of the language with their own place and meaning.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Better understanding of English language makes me appreciate Russian more. not because one is better than another, but because they are so different, and use different means to express similar thing, and how interesting and complicated the structure of any language is, and then I get really excited and think of studying one more language.

"Walking to school, the horse ran away."

In Russian, a similar problem exist, and the most popular example of it is:

"Arriving to the sation, the hat fell off the head."

[lynnb.livejournal.com]

I think it does help in everyday life - just in applying for jobs, I'm sure employers want people who can express themselves properly, and know how to compose letters and other correspondence. You were fortunate to have such good teachers. The quality of the education system here in America is very sketchy, some are very good, and some leave something to be desired.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

In Canada, too, I guess – judging by my classmates, who are of different age, and roughly half of them never studied grammar at school (age non-specific half).

I think I was lucky with Russian – I mostly write well (correctly) by myself, and use rules to check the more difficult cases. I don’t have the same feel of the English, and sometimes I have twice as problems applying the rules correctly.

[lynnb.livejournal.com]

sometimes I have twice as problems applying the rules correctly.

So do we :) But don't worry, you will do fine, because you apply yourself.