Appendix:English grammar

Gerund
 Key concepts In English, a gerund is an occurrence of an -ing-form such as “swimming” such that it can act as a noun, by taking the grammatical role of the subject or the object of a verb. Gerunds in all cases are of exactly the same form as what are called present participles. Gerunds can be considered different uses of the same form as present participles.
 * -ing-form
 * gerund
 * gerund-participle
 * present participle
 * gerund phrase
 * noun form
 * verb form
 * plural
 * modification by adjective
 * modification by adverb

What is in other languages called “gerund” may substantially differ from gerund in English.

Examples of noun use of gerund-participle:
 * “I like swimming.”
 * “Climbing can be dangerous.”
 * “Swimming competitively consumed more than 20 hours a week for practice and travel.”
 * “Competitive swimming is my favorite activity.”
 * “They got together to talk swimming.”
 * “He took to swimming in the morning before work.”
 * “This is what I wear for swimming.”
 * “There were four swimmings of the Channel that year.”

Adjective use of gerund-participle
 * “I’ve been on swimming teams since I was eight.”
 * “The swimming seal moved much faster than the one on the sand.”

To be classified/labeled:
 * “My dad took us swimming in the river.”
 * “I’d love to go swimming.”
 * “What makes it worth swimming the Channel.”
 * “I’d be happy swimming every day.”
 * “Night swimming is nice.”

Examples of present participles in progressive use:
 * “I am writing a letter.”
 * “I have been shopping.”
 * “By six o’clock I will have been practicing for a total of eight hours.”
 * “I had been writing from the moment I got to my desk after I got up.”
 * “I was writing when I heard the news on the radio.”
 * “I will be writing all weekend.”

Examples of uses of -ing-forms that are pure nouns rather than participles:
 * “This is a tall building.”
 * “All rational beings should understand.”
 * “The business meeting took longer than we expected.”
 * “The term ‘cat’ has several meanings.”

Participle
Participles in English:
 * participle
 * present participle
 * examples: swimming, eating, thinking
 * example sentences:
 * “I am swimming.”
 * “I have been swimming.”
 * past participle
 * irregular examples: eaten, beaten, done, known, led, dreamt, taught
 * regular examples: completed, created
 * example sentences:
 * “I have done my homework.”
 * “The project has been completed.”
 * compare to: simple past tense

Resources

 * The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002.
 * A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, by Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., and Svartvik, J., 1985, Longman.