Gerunds

What is a gerund?

A gerund is a verb form which is used as a noun. It is the same as the present continuous e.g. playing, thinking, eating.....etc.

Whether you want to create a gerund or continuous verb form, it is not simply a matter or adding ing to the end of each verb. For example, swim becomes swimming with an extra "m". Another example is "moving" from the word "move".

Here are some general rules:

• Verbs ending in "e": Drop the "e" before adding ing

• Verbs ending in "y": Just add ing

• Verbs ending in a vowel followed by the consonants "b", "d", "g", "k", "m", "n", "p", "r" and "t": Repeat the consonant e.g. "ship" to "shipping", "set to setting". Note, if the last consonant is preceded by another consonant, then just add "ing" e.g. "climb" forms "climbing", and "plant" forms "planting".

• Verbs ending in double consonants e.g. "ss": Just add ing e.g. "distressing".

It may be easier to consult this table listing common gerund/present continuous forms with irregular spellings and get used to seeing them.

Base Verb	Gerund / Present Continuous
become	becoming
begin	beginning
believe	believing
bid	bidding
come	coming
cut	cutting
dine	dining
drive	driving
get	getting
give	giving
have	having
leave	leaving
let	letting
like	liking
live	living
locate	locating
love	loving
make	making
move	moving
place	placing
pop	popping
put	putting
set	setting
sit	sitting
smile	smiling
ship	shipping
shop	shopping
stop	stopping
swim	swimming
take	taking
travel	traveling (US) travelling (Brit)
trek	trekking
use	using
write	writing