While not one of the traditional eight parts of speech in the English language, a gerund is a specific type of word applied to English grammar. A gerund stems from a verbal, or a verb form, but does not act as a verb in a sentence. There are three types of verbals: gerunds, participles, and infinitives. A gerund is a verbal that functions as a noun. Though a gerund is formed from a verb and indicates an action or state of being, it acts as a noun and therefore occupies a place in a sentence where a noun normally would such as a subject, a direct object, or an object of a preposition.

Without exception, a gerund always ends in –ing. Unlike a participle, which is a verbal that most often ends in -ing or -ed and acts as an adjective modifying a noun, a gerund always serves as a noun. The following words ending in -ing could be gerunds or participles, depending on how they are used in a sentence.

• Swimming
• Talking
• Traveling
• Laughing

While gerunds can be difficult to identify in some sentence structures, remember they are always used as nouns and always end in -ing. The following sentence is an example of the use of a gerund where the word sleeping is a gerund complimenting the subject.

My dog’s favorite pastime is sleeping.

In this example, sleeping is a verbal, specifically a gerund, and acts as a compliment to the subject. It identifies what the pastime is rather than what the dog is doing. In a different but similar sentence, a noun could replace sleeping as a subject compliment. For example: My dog’s favorite toy is a Frisbee.

A gerund phrase is a group of words that contains a gerund and also functions as a subject, object, or indirect object. The other words modify or compliment the expressed action or state of being that the gerund word is based on. When constructing sentences with a gerund or gerund phrase, the gerund or phrase rarely, if ever, requires punctuation.