Present participles on the other hand complete progressive verbs or act as modifiers.

Example of gerund and participle. Notice the subtle change in meaning between the two sentences in each pair. Swimming in the sea has been Monas passion since she was five years old. These verbals are important in phrases.

Present participle verbs report continuity. It is mostly used to modify nouns. A gerund functions like a noun.

In this sentence the word brushing is the gerund functioning as the subject of the sentence. Though both have the same form they are different in the jobs they do. It is easy to identify whether a finite verb is an infinitive gerund or participle.

I have considered buying that phone. Dancing is her passion. That means they serve the same purpose as a noun.

I like to swim. He kept me waiting. A participle on the other hand functions like an adjective.

Singing is the object of verb enjoy being an object of a verb is the mark of a noun therefore singing is a gerund. Words like swimming tying dreaming eating fishing and drinking can all be used as gerunds. Dancing is a good exercise.