Conclusions
Gerund is one of the most difficult grammar point in English and it must be studied perfectly by teacher before explaining students. It has a lot of positions in the sentence and students must learn these positions because the meaning of the sentences depends of the positions every word in English.
The derivation of gerund structures is various. Every structure has its own grammar meaning and position in the sentence. It was shown in this course paper how to build sentences with these structures and there are many examples which show the using of gerund.
Gerund is a specific structure because it can be used as Direct Objects. In this case it mixed with nouns. Gerund complements is differ from noun its grammar and semantic meanings. And it can be used as the Subject of sentences.
Gerund very often is used with prepositions. It is very important to know these structures because very often the preposition can change semantic meaning of the verb which is used as gerund. Most of that prepositions have their grammar meaning, too.
It is difficult to teach gerund because it often is mixed with infinitive. Gerund is used after particular verbs. There are not rules about these verbs and students must learn them by heart because infinitive has particular verbs, too. So, if students do not know them they can’t use gerund correctly. It is the main difficulty.
Sometimes using infinitive instead of gerund doesn’t make the sentence incorrect but it change the meaning of it.
It has an importance the frequency of using gerund in language. English is one of the European language where gerund is used the most frequently. And it makes a big difficulty for Ukrainian students because these grammar structures don’t exist in native language.
References
- Cawley, F. The difficulty of English grammar for pupils of secondary school age. — MEd thesis, University of Manchester, 1957.
- Conrad J. F. Gerund Clauses General Properties of Gerunds, Participles and Verbal Nouns. — at Britain: Prentice Hall, 1982.
- Ellis J. Gerund and Infinitive. — London: Larson-Freeman, 2002
- Freed M. Theory of English grammar. — Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1979.
- Murhy R. English grammar in Use. – Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1988.
- Swan M. Grammar. – London: Longman 1999.
- Thomson A. J. & A. V. Martinet. A Practical English grammar. – Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1986.
