Difference between Gerund and participle
PRESENT PARTICIPLE versus GERUND
The origin of both present participle and gerund is VERB words. And the physical constructional structure of both present participle and gerund is:
VERB + ing
Involving present participle and gerund, there exists a confusion and an incorrect idea, as follows:
CONFUSION
Because the origin and structural pattern of both present participle and gerund are the same, it often creates confusion about identifying which ones are present participle and which are gerund.
INCORRECT IDEA
Many grammarians define that the verb-ing words as gerund where they function like noun, in that, they define that the verb-ing words are gerund “ONLY where” they function like a NOUN, or where they function like “NOUN ONLY”. The incorrectness in this definition is not that verb-ing words are gerund where they function like noun. But the incorrectness is in the position limiting the function to “noun ONLY”. The correct definition is: The verb-ing words are gerund where they function like NOUN or DETERMINER.
Now let me explain the matter by using some examples.
Consider the following three speeches:
Speech 1: John is cleaning the kitchen.
Speech 2: Cleaning can fix the problem.
Speech 3: This is a cleaning tool.
In these speeches, “cleaning” is the target word.
Speech 1 Example:
VERB-ING functioning as VERB
In the speech “John is cleaning the kitchen”, “cleaning” is what John is DOING or it describes John’s ACTION and therefore it is a verb.
Speech 2 Example:
VERB-ING functioning as NOUN
While “cleaning” is our target word in the speech “Cleaning can fix the problem”, let’s compare it to “John can fix the problem” as well as use another set of examples in which comparing “I need cleaning” to “I need money”.
So, to evaluate the target word “cleaning”, we have the following two sets of speeches:
Set 1. Cleaning can fix the problem (comparing to “John can fix the problem”).
Set 2. I need cleaning (comparing to “I need money”)
In the first set, the function of “cleaning” is identical to the function of the noun “John” while John-noun’s function is the subject in “John can fix the problem”. Accordingly, “cleaning” is working like a noun.
And, in the second set, function of “cleaning” is identical to the function of the noun “money” while money-noun’s function is the object in “I need money”. Therefore, also here, “cleaning” is functioning as a noun.
And, of course, in this function of cleaning, there is no functional characteristic of verb.
Speech 3 Example:
VERB-ING functioning as DETERMINER
Just as above, we will use a comparison:
This is a cleaning tool (comparing to “This is my tool”).
In “This is my tool”, “my” expresses whom the tool belongs to but, in “This is a cleaning tool”, “cleaning” expresses the purpose of the tool. Despite this difference, the functions of both “my” and “cleaning” have in common the following two elements:
Element 1
“my” introduces the noun “tool”, so does “cleaning”; and
Element 2
“whom the tool belongs to” is not any personal physical property of the noun “tool” itself; likewise, “purpose of the tool” is not any personal physical property of the noun “tool” itself. Rather, both words relate “tool” to something else while that something else doesn’t exist within the noun “tool”’s very existence. Therefore, the functions of “my” and cleaning” are limited to introduction ONLY (as opposed to modification).
These are the elements that constitute DETERMINER. Consequently, here “cleaning”, just as “my”, is a determiner. And, in this function, there is no functional characteristic of either verb or noun; or no function of noun and no function of verb are present here in the function of “cleaning”.
So, the origin of “cleaning” is the verb “clean”. And its structural pattern is:
clean + ing
verb + ing
But, in Speech 1, it functions as VERB.
In Speech 2, it functions as NOUN. And in Speech 3, it functions as DETERMINER.
The “cleaning” in Speech 1 (verb) is PRESENT PARTICIPLE.
And the “cleaning”s in Speech 2 (noun) and Speech 3 (determiner) are GERUND.
So, verb-ing is a present participle when it functions as a verb.
And, gerund is a verb-ing word that functions as either noun or determiner.
CONCLUSION
Although verb words are the origin and physical constructional pattern is “verb + ing” of both present participle and gerund, they are diametrically different. Present participles are verb but gerunds are not. Gerunds function like noun or determiner, and whether functioning as noun or determiner depends on the context of use.
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