Gerund or Present Participle?

If you have never heard of the words, "gerund" or "participle", don't feel bad. They're not words that one throws out in everyday speech. "Hey man, did you hear that gerund he used?" "No, John, I didn't because I think it was actually a present participle."

With that said, I am going to expatiate on this topic because, in English, unlike in other Indo-European languages like French and Spanish, gerunds and participles are simulacra of each other. Here's an example using the "to be" verb:

Gerund: being

Present Participle: being

It is important though that one not scratch his head and say that these are exactly the same because they are not. A gerund masks itself as a noun whereas a present participle masks itself as an adjective. As everyone knows, nouns and adjectives are entirely different concepts so this is still important. Here are some examples of them and I shall explain what they are:

1. I don't think that my being here is necessary. (Here, "being" is acting as a noun so it's a gerund. The possessive pronoun "my" is evincing ownership of the gerund "being", although the word "being" is not a physical noun to possess.)

2. I am being taken advantage of and I won't stand for it! (Here, "being" is acting as an adjective so it's a present participle.)

This concept appears relatively easy to understand, but confusion occurs especially when the subject of a sentence is a gerund (especially if the sentence be posed in a negated sense) or when two clauses are combined with the second one's being a gerund or present participle. Here are some examples:

1. I saw him running down the street earlier. ("Running" is a present participle. The first clause is "I saw him" and the second is actually "He was running down the street earlier", but a person must drop the "He was" part so that these two clauses can be fayed together.)

2. His not coming with us is not a big deal. ("Coming" is acting as a noun so it's a gerund here. Many native speakers would use the objective pronoun "Him" in front of this, but "him not coming" in this instance is grammatically incorrect because that would make "coming" a present participle and it clearly is not. The subject of this sentence is italicized, "His not coming with us" whereas the predicate is "is not a big deal" so the subject could be replaced by "It" and so it would say, "It is not a big deal".)

3. I am talking about your doing your homework when it is assigned. ("Talking" is a present participle, but "doing" is a gerund. In fact, the preposition "about" opens up a prepositional phrase; therefore an -ing ending word will always be a gerund.)

The key to remember is that a gerund must be possessed; therefore it can only have a possessive pronoun in front of it because it is acting like a noun. The possessive pronoun must be an attributive adjective for it to work in front of a gerund. With that said, constructions such as "Me winning is all that matters" is incorrect because "me" is an objective pronoun; not a possessive pronoun. The possessive pronoun is "my"; therefore the sentence should read, "My winning is all that matters".

With that said, below is a list of pronouns so that everyone understand just what certain pronouns are:

MODERN ENGLISH PRONOUNS

*Archaic pronouns that are still used in modern English writing and speaking are shown below.

Possessive Case

1. my (attributive adjective of I)
1. mine (predicate adjective of I)
1. mine (attributive adjective of I for nouns beginning with a vowel or a silent h)*archaic
1. our (attributive adjective of We)
1. ours (predicate adjective of We)
2. your (attributive adjective of You or Ye)*Ye is archaic plural/polite singular or modern humorous
2. yours (predicate adjective of You or Ye)
2. thy (attributive adjective of Thou)*archaic
2. thine (predicate adjective of Thou)*archaic
2. thine (attributive adjective of Thou for nouns beginning with a vowel or a silent h)*archaic
3. his (attributive/predicate adjective of He)
3. her (attributive adjective of She)
3. hers (predicate adjective of She)
3. its (attributive/predicate adjective of It)
3. their (attributive adjective of They)
3. theirs (predicate adjective of They)

Above is a cursory brushup of possessive pronouns. This is just another reminder that gerunds take possessive pronouns that are attributive adjectives. They never take a predicate adjective. The list above was to show you which possessive pronouns happen to be attributive adjectives and which ones are predicate adjectives.

I can only hope that this might have helped those of you who are interested in learning more about English or who are trying to learn another language and want to compare it to English in this respect. One thing you will notice is that gerunds and present participles may be easily recognized in the language that you might be studying, but, in English, it takes a super sleuth to figure it out. With that said, good luck deciphering it on your own.