Gerund or Present Participle?

Teach gerunds, infinitives and participles one at a time with their own sheets, then use Sort Verbals by Type and Function as a review. Use the article sheets to show verbals in real prose.

Tell gerunds from present participles in sentences set in a dance studio. Gerunds and present participles both end in -ing. A gerund acts as a noun. A present participle acts as an adjective that describes a noun or pronoun. The directions on the page read: Underline the one -ing word in each sentence. On the line, write G if it is a gerund or P if it is a present participle. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade parts of speech, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

A gerund phrase acts as a noun, so it can be a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, subject complement or appositive. Students underline gerund phrases and label each job with a code.

A perfect participle is having plus a past participle, as in having eaten lunch. It shows an action finished before the main verb. Students combine sentence pairs into one sentence that opens with Having.

Use to have plus a past participle for an action that happened before the main verb, as in Marie Curie is known to have won two Nobel Prizes. Use a simple infinitive for the same time or later.

To plus a verb is an infinitive, as in to swim. To plus a noun or pronoun is a prepositional phrase, as in to the lake. Students label each to phrase in sentences about a road trip.