Gerunds

Today's featured lesson is on gerunds. Gerunds are words that look like verbs with their "ing" ending, but they function more like nouns. Here's a simple example:

Riding a bike is a good way to help protect the environment.

The word "riding" is a gerund. The singular verb that matches it is "is." When gerunds are in the position of the subject, they are always singular.

Gerunds often appear after words describing time or in adverbial phrases:

Before going to sleep, I set my alarm.

When working on her computer, she likes to listen to the radio.

After winning five games in a row, the football team finally lost one last night.

As you can see, a gerund follows each expression of time. The first part of the sentence is a dependent clause, the second part following the comma is the independent clause. �