perfect and passive gerund

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello everyone;

To the best of my knowledge gerunds function as nouns; however, we have perfect and passive gerund. How is it possible to use a noun in perfect and passive form shouldn’t it rather be called perfect and passive forms of present participle in the following sentences I would rather think of the ing forms as present participle :

I enjoy being praised.
They had problems having been connected to the internet.
Having fallen asleep, they forgot to turn off the lights.

what do you think?

2

They are indeed passive participles and can be past and present. In either case they need to be related to a noun (subject).

You would need a preposition (after) to link the two parts of in sentence 2.

3

This addition might clarify the difference between the gerund and the participle:
The passive sentence ‘I enjoy being praised (by others)’ comes from the active sentence ‘I enjoy others praising me’ in which ‘praising’ is a participle, and not a gerund.

4

Anglophile / Alan,

  1. They had problems having been connected to the internet.
  2. Having fallen asleep, they forgot to turn off the lights.
    In #1 and #2, is ‘having’ a gerund or a participle?
    Thanks.
5

  1. They had problems after having been connected to the internet. (As suggested by Alan)

  2. Having fallen asleep, they forgot to (could not) turn off the lights. (Acceptable, to me)

In #1 and #2, is ‘having’ a gerund or a participle? (Perfective Participle)

  1. having been connected (Passive perfective participle)

  2. having fallen (Active perfective participle)

6

Hello, dear Teacher! Did you mean that ‘being’ in ‘I enjoy being praised’ is NOT a gerund?

7

Yes. It is a passive participle; here a passiviser, to be specific.

Look at this:

He is eating grapes. (Active)
Grapes are being eaten by him. (Passive)

(What passivises the sentence is ‘being’)

These are the eight passivisers: BE, BEING, BEEN, IS, AM, ARE, WAS, WERE.

You will have to use one of them if you want to turn an active sentence into passive.

8

I beg to differ with you, dear Anglopile. It is definitely a passive gerund, not a passive participle.

9

Okay, Foreigner, although we know a gerund is a verbal noun. Let’s wait for other comments. You have as much right to refute a view as I have to assert it. I always appreciate your way of differing with others. Thanks for your patience.

10

Some verbs can be followed by either an infinitive or a gerund and some verbs can take either. Gerund only - enjoy. Infinitive only - wish. Either gerund or infinitive - try. We say - I enjoy visiting - I wish to visit - I try to visit/visiting. Now all the forms are either active.gerunds or infinitives. We can of course make the gerund forms passive - I enjoy being visited/I try being visited. Those with infinitives become passive infinitives - I wish to be visited/I try to be visited.

11

1a. All his life he went on making pedantic jokes.
1b. All his life he went on making trivial jokes.
2a. He is a pedantic teacher, since he corrects even small errors.
2b. He is an academic teacher, since he corrects even small errors.
Please correct all.
thanks.

12

1a) I don’t see how a joke could be pedantic.

2b) ‘Academic’ is not a style of teaching.

13

I do agree that ‘visiting’ is a gerund in your example.
But where did you bring the ‘being visited’ from?

We all agree that a gerund is the ‘ing’ form of a verb functioning as a noun.

Can a noun be passivised? And, can the sentence ‘I enjoy visiting’ be passivised?
My answer to both the above would be a NO.

Now I take your sentence ‘I enjoy being visited’. It is passive, all right.
But what’s its corresponding active voice?

14

Sure a gerund can be a noun but it is a special type of noun - a verbal noun. I enjoy being visited - means I enjoy it when people come to visit me . A better example would be when you say that you enjoy driving. Some people like to do this in their own car and others prefer it when someone else does the driving for them - I enjoy being driven.

I enjoy visiting.

15

Agreed.

Doesn’t ‘I enjoy visiting’ mean ‘I enjoy it when I go to visit people’?

If so, I’m afraid both do not mean the same.

16

Let’s make it specific where both forms mean the same - Lucy enjoyed Fred visiting her - active. Being visited by Fred was enjoyed by Lucy - passive.

17

Yes, this is okay. (It can also be 'Lucy enjoyed her being visited by Fred). Anyhow, Alan, I have failed to make myself clear to you. Let’s leave it at that. Thanks for your patience.