Temas de Noveno

UNID 7

 

What are Gerunds?

A gerund is a verb in its ing (present participle) form that functions as a noun that names an activity rather than a person or thing. Any action verb can be made into a gerund.

Spelling Tip

Verbing (Present Participle)

• Add ing to most verbs. Ex. play > playing, cry > crying, bark > barking

• For verbs that end in e, remove the e and add ing. Ex: slide > sliding, ride > riding

• For verbs that end in ie, change the ie to y and add ing. Ex: die > dying, tie > tying

• For a verb whose last syllable is written with a consonant-vowel-consonant and is stressed, double the last letter before adding ing. Ex: beg > begging, begin > beginning. However: enter > entering (last syllable is not stressed)

Gerund Examples

Gerunds can appear at the beginning of a sentence when used as a subject:

      1. Jogging is a hobby of mine.

Gerunds can act as an object following the verb:

       1.  Daniel quit smoking a year ago.

Gerunds can serve as an object after a preposition:

       1.  I look forward to helping you paint the house.

Note: The same spelling rules that apply to the progressive tenses also apply to gerunds.

Some verbs and verb phrases are directly followed a gerund:

       1. Paul avoids using chemicals on the vegetables he grows.

Some verbs can be followed by a gerund or an infinitive without causing a change in meaning:

       1. Some people prefer getting up early in the morning.

       1.  Some people prefer to get up early in the morning

Some verbs can be followed by a gerund or infinitive but with a change in meaning:

      2.  He remembered sending the fax. (He remembered the act of send the fax)

      2. He remembered to send the fax. (He remembered the fax and sent it.)

What are Infinitives?

An infinitive is a verb form that acts as other parts of speech in a sentence. It is formed with to + base form of the verb. Ex: to buy, to work.

Infinitive Examples

Infinitives can be used as:

an object following the verb:

      1. Jim always forgets to eat

  a subject at the beginning of a sentence:

       1. To travel around the world requires a lot of time and money.

an adverb modifying a verb:

       1.  You promised to buy me a diamond ring.

 an adjective modifying a noun:

       1. Tara has the ability to succeed.

Some verbs are directly followed by an infinitive:

       1. Do you want to call your family now?

Some verbs are directly followed by a noun or pronoun and then by an infinitive:

       1.  I convinced Catherine to become vegetarian.

       1. He advised me to sell all my shares of stock.

Some verbs can be followed by an infinitive or a gerund without causing a change in meaning:

        1. Will you continue working after you give birth?

        1.Will you continue to work after you give birth?

Some verbs can be followed by an infinitive or a gerund but with a change in meaning:

        1.  He stopped drinking coffee. (He never drank coffee again.)

        1.He stopped to drink coffee. (He stopped what he was doing and drank some coffee.)

Expression with preposition

Verbs often combine with  prepositions. These combinations are  called phrasal verbs. There are numerous phrasal verbs in English and they cause a great deal of difficulty for ESL students. It is nearly impossible for a non-native speaker to learn all of these idiomatic expressions. Still, you must be familiar with the most important ones.

Interestingly, sometimes the same verb takes different prepositions with different objects. The meanings of all of these expressions are usually the same.

Examples are given below. 

Agree on / agree about / agree with

Agree with a person, policy or opinion

I entirely agree with your opinion.

I don’t agree with you.

Agree about a subject of discussion

We never agree about anything.

Agree on a price, a matter of discussion etc.

We couldn’t agree on a price.

Agree to a suggestion or proposal.

She didn’t agree to my proposal.

Angry about / angry with

We are angry with people and angry about things. The preposition at is sometimes used with both people and things.

She was angry with me for reading her letters.

OR She was angry at me for reading her letters.

My parents were angry about my dismal performance. OR My parents were angry at my dismal performance.

Argue about / argue with

We argue about a matter.

After his death, his children argued about his property.

They argued about his affair. (NOT They argued with his affair.)

We can argue with a person.

I don’t want to argue with you.

He argued with his wife. (NOT He argued about his wife.)

We can also argue for or against a preposition.

                                                          UNIT8

1. Questions without questions words in Passive (Simple Present)

Form of be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Yes/No	Subject	Auxiliary (+ n't)
Is	the test	written	in room 311?	Yes, No, No,	it it it	is. is not. isn't.
Are	grapes	grown	in California?	Yes, No, No,	they they they	are. are not. aren't.

2. Questions with questions words in Passive (Simple Present)

Question word	Form of be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Answer
Where	is	the test	written?		The test is written in room 311.
Why	are	grapes	grown	in California?	Grapes are grown in California because it's warm and sunny.

3. Questions without questions words in Passive (Simple Past)

Form of be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Yes/No	Subject	Auxiliary (+ n't)
Was	the book	taken	to the classroom?	Yes, No, No,	it it it	was. was not. wasn't.
Were	the students	taught	at home?	Yes, No, No,	they they they	were. were not. weren't.

4. Questions with question words in Passive (Simple Past)

Question word	Form of be	Subject	past participle	Rest	Answer
Where	was	the book	taken?		The book was taken to the classroom.
Why	were	the students	taught	at home?	The students were taught at home because the school was closed.

5. Other tenses

Here are some more examples in other tenses. Let's start with the simple forms:

Tense	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
Present Perfect	Has	the house	been built?
Past Perfect	Had	the house	been built?
will-future	Will	the house	be built?
going to-future	Is	the house	going to be built?
Future Perfect	Will	the house	have been built?
Conditional	Would	the house	be built?
Conditional Perfect	Would	the house	have been built?

 And here are two progessive forms:

Tense	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
Present Progressive	Is	the house	being built?
Past Progressive	Was	the house	being built?

* past participle:

• regular verbs → infinitive + -ed
• irregular verbs → 3rd column of the table of the irregular verbs