Hi again. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's lesson we're going to look at some
grammar points that is very, very important, mostly because it's very
confusing to a lot of people. We're going to look at the four
different uses of "ing" words. Now, I don't want to say "ing" verb because
that makes it a little confusing as well because the "ing"... Words that end in "ing" could be used as nouns,
as verbs, as adjectives, and as adverbs. Okay? So we're going to look at how
they are used in each way. So first we are going to look at
them as they are used as nouns. Now, technically, in whatever situation you're
seeing an "ing" word, it's always a verb. But it could be used as a noun, in
which case it is called a gerund. Now, this is a grammar word. You're never going to use this word outside
of your grammar class, but in case I refer to it again: A "gerund" is an
"ing" word being used as a noun. So if we're looking at this sentence: "Wearing
loose pants while riding a bicycle is dangerous." So here is your gerund. So the subject of this
sentence is "wearing". The verb is "is". Okay? "Wearing is dangerous", "Wearing
loose pants is dangerous", and then everything else
I'll talk about in a second. Now, a gerund "ing" is basically
the activity of the verb. So, "to wear" means, like,
to have clothes on. Wearing a blue shirt makes
me look taller, maybe. Or shorter. Because I'm on camera you can't tell.
Right? Okay. "Wearing" is the activity. Smoking is the activity,
running is the activity. "To run" is the
idea of the action. Okay. Now, here, this word is actually not a
gerund and it's not really a verb either. It's... It has the verb idea, but it is actually a
participle, which we're going to talk about in a minute. Okay? So this is a participle, this is a
gerund, just the activity itself. Now... So we're going to call
it a noun for now. Then we have the verb, the everyday verb in
the continuous tense; past, present, future continuous. Always with a "be" verb. Okay? If you don't see an "ing" verb connected
to a "be" verb then it's not a verb, it's one of the other uses. Okay? There's always going to be a "be" verb when
you're using it as an actual verb, as an action. "The man is riding a bike." Right now this is what he is
doing, he is riding a bicycle. Oh, sorry. I'm running still. I forgot it... The verb. Okay. So "be" verb,
continuous verb, easy. That's the one everybody's
the most comfortable with. Now, we can also use
it as an adjective. "Wearing a blue, backless dress, the actress
created quite a stir at the party." Now, "wearing" is your participle,
your active participle. We also have past
participle which is in... Used in the passive form, but we're going
to talk about that in a different lesson. "Wearing" here, I'm
describing the actress. Okay? So if I want to open it up, if I
want to write it in a different way, the actress who was wearing... Because I'm in the
past, so I have "was". "The actress who was wearing a blue,
backless dress created quite a stir." So the participle is just a
reduced adjective clause. Okay? What I do is I take out the conjunction, the
pronoun and subject, I take out the "be" verb, all I am left with
is the participle. Now, because I'm... I have only the participle
phrase, it's no... It's not a clause anymore, there's no subject
and verb anymore, there's just a phrase - I can put it at the beginning of the sentence
as long as the subject of the participle is the same as the subject of the
independent clause. Okay? Now, if you're not sure what I'm talking about,
you can watch the video about adjective clauses, you can watch the video about independent
clauses, you'll get a better idea of what these are. Okay? So, adjective. Now, where it gets confusing is I can do the
exact same thing, but I can use it as an adverb. Okay? "Not wanting to miss our flight, we
arrived at the airport 3 hrs early." This is three hours, sorry, I
had to reduce a little bit. So, here. Now, you've probably heard never to
use the word "want" with an "ing". That is true in this case. Never use "want", "wanting" as a verb,
but you can use it as a participle. Okay? Now, what does this mean? "As we didn't want" or "Because
we didn't want", both okay. "As we didn't want to miss our flight, we
arrived at the airport three hours early." Now, you're thinking:
"What's going on here?" Okay? So here's our negative,
here's our negative. First let's get that
out of the way. Now, what I'm doing here,
again, I'm reducing. Excuse me. I'm reducing an
adjective clause... Sorry, an adverb clause
to an adverb participle. We can only do this when the conjunction-"as",
"because", "since"-in this case is very, very obvious... Sorry about that. When the conjunction... When the relationship between the two clauses is
very obvious we can take out the conjunction, and we can take out the subject and the verb, and
leave only the verb and make it a participle. And then we have a participle phrase, and we can
put that at the beginning of the sentence again. So: "Not wanting", this word, "wanting" includes
the conjunction, the subject, and the verb, all of them squeezed
into this participle. Now, this might be a
little bit confusing. Don't worry, I will create a
separate lesson for participles. I know they're difficult. But I just want you to show... To show you the
four uses of "ing". So, if you see "ing" words and you're just
not sure how they're used because they don't look like a verb, think: Is it
talking about the activity? Is it with a "be"...? With a "be" verb as a verb? Is it describing something? Is it modifying a noun? Or is it showing you a relationship to another
clause, to the independent clause especially? Now, the most common one, and this is
probably the most difficult structure, I guess, you could call it for a lot
of people is the perfect participle. "Having finished his meal,
Tom went out for a walk." The "having" is,
again, a participle. "After he finished his meal,
Tom went out for a walk." Same idea. It's an adverb participle,
a perfect participle. We'll talk about that
in another lesson. For today I just wanted you to
understand the four uses of "ing". When you're reading something, you're not
sure you understand, look at the context. What is this word doing
in this sentence? Once you know that it could be all four parts
of speech, much easier to guess its meaning. Okay? Good. So I hope you like that. Please subscribe to
my YouTube channel. And if you have any questions about this lesson,
please go to www.engvid.com, join the forum there. You can ask me questions. You can also take the
quiz on www.engvid.com. And yeah, I'll see
you again soon. Bye-bye.
