Lesson 10

Part 1

Functions of the Gerund in a Sentence

In a sentence the gerund can play a few roles.

1. Role of a subject: the gerund is placed before a predicate and translated as a noun, e.g.: Obtaining cytokines is a stage process. - Получение цитокининов - это стадийный

процесс.

2. Role of an attribute: the gerund is placed before the word it belongs to, e.g. : the melting point. In this case it is translated as a noun: melting point - температура плавления.

3. Role of an adverb: the gerund can have a preposition and can be translated as an adverbial participle, e.g.: Through having investigated new types of polymers we obtained new materials - Исследовав свойства полимеров, мы получили новые материалы.

4. Role of an object: the gerund is placed before a predicate and can be translated as a noun, e.g.: The turbulent flow of gases produces cooling - Турбулентное течение газов вызывает охлаждение.

5. Also the gerund can play the role of the nominal part of a compound predicate. Such kind of verbs can be:

a

80

) link - verb “to be” which is translated by the words “заключаться”, “являться”, e.g.:This technique is to determine the composition of any substance in an exact way. - Этот метод заключается в точном определении состава любого вещества.

b) Verbs that mean continuation, beginning or interruption of an action: to start, to continue, to go on, to finish, to keep on, e.g.: The temperature went on rising - Температура продолжала увеличиваться.

Also a special attention should be paid to the word combinations after which gerund is used:

cannot help - нельзя (не можем не). E.g.: He couldn’t help crying. - Он не мог не плакать.

It is worth (worthwhile) - стоит. E.g.: It is worth seeing it. - Это стоит увидеть.

No use - нет смысла, бесполезно. E.g.: It is no use considering this method. - Не имеет смысла рассматривать этот метод.

Practice

Translate the following sentences paying attention to the gerund. What role does it play in the sentences ?

1. Appetite comes with eating.

2. A committee has been established for coordinating the nomenclature.

3. From here on, the theory starts evaluating the various alternatives of action in terms of the objectives.

4. It is no use of speaking of it.

5. Upon switching off the current the pressure dropped.

6. Instead of using chlorine they took bromine.

7. The new opportunities may make life on this planet much more worth living.

8. In fact neither shock cooling nor any other method has been found to give an entirely amorphous product.

9. The heating of metallic surface until sintering occurs invariably.

10. This method is passing hydrocarbon with hydrogen over the catalyst.

11. For convenience in writing these models are represented by the projection formulas.

12. Using this procedure we were able to reach good results.

13. This process causes increasing the yield of hydrocarbons.