Gerund

Gerund adalah suatu kata yang dibentuk dariverb (kata kerja) dengan ditambahkan suffix(akhiran)-ing dan berfungsi sebagai noun (kata benda).

Kata ini merupakan verbal, yaitu suatu kata yang dibentuk dari kata kerja, namun berfungsi sebagaipart of speech lain. Verbal yang lain yaitu infinitive dan participle. Seperti verbal lainnya, kata ini lebih umum untuk menamai action (aksi) atau state of being (keadaan). Verbal ini dapat dipadukan dengan modifier dengan atau tanpa tambahan noun(s), pronoun(s), atau noun phrasemembentuk gerund phrase. Karena berfungsi sebagai kata benda, maka harus ada verb lain dalam suatu kalimat.

a.       Penggunaan dan Contoh Gerund

Beberapa penggunaan dan contoh kalimat gerund adalah sebagai berikut

Penggunaan Gerund	Contoh Kalimat Gerund	Keterangan
Subject of a Sentence	Binging is a phase frequently done by a bulimic.	binging dan running merupakan subject of sentence
	Running may be hard for some people.
Direct Object	I hate waiting.	waiting merupakan direct object dari verb hate
	I hope they enjoy my writing.	writing merupakan direct object dari verb enjoy
Subject Complement	My bestfriend’s favorite activity is shopping.	shopping merupakan subject complement dari verbis
Object of a Preposition	They disscussed an article abouttelling the truth.	telling the truth dan removing some substatial datamasing-masing merupakan object dari prepositionabout dan for
	The manager scolded the worker for removing some substantial data.
Appositive	His hobby, sailing, takes a lot of time.	sailing dan shopping merupakan appositives
	My bestfriend’s favorite activity, shopping, has made her spend much money.

b.      Verb yang diikuti Gerund

Verb yang diikuti oleh gerund dapat berupa verb tanpa tambahan agent atau dengan tambahanagent. Detail dan contohnya dalam kalimatnya adalah sebagai berikut.

Kondisi	Contoh Verb	Contoh Kalimat Gerund
Tanpa tambahan agent	acknowledge, admit, advise, anticipate, appreaciate, avoid, begin, celebrate, consider, continue, deny, discuss, dislike, endure, enjoy, finish, forget, give up, hate, help, practice, prefer, recommend, regret, remember, start, stop, teach, understand	I hate working with him.
		The student has finishedstudying.
Perlu tambahan agent	hear, watch, see	We heard him singing the song. (him= agent)
		I saw the man walking on the street. (the man= agent)

Beberapa expression juga dapat diikuti oleh verbal ini, yaitu: worth, rather than, dan instead of.

Expression	Contoh Kalimat
Worth	It is worth reading the book.
Rather than	I prefer to sleep rather than going to the party.
Instead of	Instead of paying the baggage fees, she will only carry a small backpack.

c.       Kapan Harus Menghindari Gerund?

Verbal ini perlu dihindari* penggunaannya ketika ada noun relevan berdasarkan kata kerja yang sama.

Contoh:

-          Your designs need some improving. —> Your designs need some improvement.

-          The activating may take up to five minutes. —> The activation may take up to five minutes.

INFINITIVES

Both gerunds and infinitives can be nouns, which means they can do just about anything that a noun can do. Although they name things, like other nouns, they normally name activities rather than people or objects. Here are five noun-uses of gerunds and infinitives (and one additional non-noun use, the adjective complement, that we throw in here, free of charge).

Gerunds and infintives can both function as the subject of a sentence:

a.       Playing basketball takes up too much of her time.

b.      To play basketball for UConn is her favorite fantasy.

It is not impossible for an infinitive to appear at the beginning of a sentence as the subject (as in Ib), but it is more common for an infinitive to appear as a Subject Complement:

a.       Her favorite fantasy is to play basketball for UConn.

The gerund can also play this role:

b.      Her favorite fantasy is playing basketball for UConn.

Both of these verbal forms can further identify a noun when they play the role of Noun Complement and Appositive:

a.       Her desire to play basketball for UConn became an obsession.

b.      I could never understand her desire to play basketball for UConn.

c.       Her one burning desire in life, playing basketball for UConn, seemed a goal within reach.

The infinitive is often a complement used to help define an abstract noun. Here is a very partial list of abstract nouns, enough to suggest their nature. Try following these adjectives with an infinitive phrase (their desire to play in the championship game, a motivation to pass all their courses, her permission to stay up late, a gentle reminder to do your work) to see how the phrase modifies and focuses the noun.

advice appeal command decision desire fact instruction motivation	opportunity order permission plan possibility preparation proposal recommendation	refusal reminder request requirement suggestion tendency wish

Infinitive phrases often follow certain adjectives. When this happens, the infinitive is said to play the role of Adjective Complement. (This is not a noun function, but we will include it here nonetheless.)

a.       She was hesitant to tell the coach of her plan.

b.      She was reluctant to tell her parents, also.

c.       But she would not have been content to play high school ball forever.

Here is a list of adjectives that you will often find in such constructions.

ahead amazed anxious apt ashamed bound careful certain content delighted

determined disappointed eager eligible fortunate glad happy hesitant liable likely

lucky pleased proud ready reluctant sad shocked sorry surprised upset

Although we do not find many infinitives in this next category, it is not uncommon to find gerunds taking on the role of Object of a Preposition:

a.       She wrote a newspaper article about dealing with college recruiters.

b.      She thanked her coach for helping her to deal with the pressure.

Two prepositions, except and but, will sometimes take an infinitive.

a.       The committee had no choice except to elect Frogbellow chairperson.

b.      What is left for us but to pack up our belongings and leave?

And, finally, both gerunds and infinitives can act as a Direct Object:

Here, however, all kinds of decisions have to be made, and some of these decisions will seem quite arbitrary. The next section is about making the choice between gerund and infinitive forms as direct object.

Verbs that take other verb forms as objects are called catenatives (from a word that means to link, as in a chain). Catenatives can be found at the head of a series of linked constructions, as in "We agreed to try to decide to stop eating between meals." Catenatives are also characterized by their tendency to describe mental processes and resolutions. (Kolln)

Although it is seldom a serious problem for native English speakers, deciding whether to use a gerund or an infinitive after a verb can be perplexing among students for whom English is a second language. Why do we decide to run, but we would never decide running? On the other hand, we might avoid running, but we would not avoid to run. And finally, we might like runningand would also like to run. It is clear that some verbs take gerunds, some verbs take infinitives, and some verbs take either. The following tables of verbs should help you understand the various options that regulate our choice of infinitive or gerund.