How to Use Gerunds in English Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them maybe first

question this week comes from Electra hi

Elektra Elektra says hi Alicia

I’m Electra from Greece could you please

explain gerunds to us sure a gerund is a

verb in the ing form so using it in this

way makes it a noun we can use it as a

noun in a sentence for example she likes

cooking or he hates hiking so in these

sentences the words that end in ing are

gerunds in the first sentence cooking in

the second sentence hiking we can use

jaren’s and the infinitive forms of

verbs sometimes interchangeably so the

infinitive form of a verb is 2 plus the

base form of the verb for example she

likes to cook or he likes to hike a very

common question is when do I use a

gerund when do I use an infinitive and

the question is quite big it’s way too

big to answer in this series the reason

is that there are many different groups

of verbs that tend to take jaren’s or

that tend to take infinitives but there

are exceptions all over the place so

it’s quite challenging to make a rule or

a guide specifically for jaren’s are

specifically for infinitives so this is

a quick introduction to what a gerund is

it’s a verb that takes an ING ending and

is used as a noun in a sentence I hope

that this helps you thanks very much for

the question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from el hassan ahmed

hello al hassan al hassan says I

sometimes hear people say better instead

of improve as if it is a verb is that

formal for example think about how to

better yourself also I heard someone say

more better and it sounded strange to me

I mean can I say he is more taller than

me I don’t think I can thanks a lot

ok yes exactly to better means to

improve and

yes it does sound a little bit more

polite a little bit more formal like you

should better yourself you should

improve yourself or she aims to better

her students meaning she aims to improve

her students so yes you can use better

to mean improve in this way just make

sure you use it as a verb to answer your

second question though

more better as you’ve said yes is

grammatically incorrect and you’re also

correct you cannot say he is more taller

than me that’s also incorrect so the

reason that you might hear something

like this is because native speakers

often like to make grammatical mistakes

on purpose to sound funny like to sound

childish or like to make a joke so a

very popular one is to use the

expression more better like ah that’s

more better it sounds kind of cute like

a child who hasn’t learned all of the

grammar rules of English yet they might

say more better instead of just better

so this is maybe like a way that someone

could joke around or just try to sound

more friendly or kind of cute' in there

speaking thanks very much for the

question I hope that this helps you okay

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from Tatsu hi Tatsu Tatsu

says could you tell me the difference

between correct and right sure if you’re

talking about the opposite of wrong as

in like the answers on a test and

correct and right are both fine to use

you can use either of them if you’re

talking about the opposite of left then

you have to use right you cannot use

correct for that we also talked about

things that are societally proper that

are societally good with the word right

we do not use correct so for example if

you say like oh my gosh my medical feeds

from my hospital stay we’re so high

that’s not right so we use right to mean

like that’s not good or that’s not fair

that’s not like a good thing in our

society we also use the word right to

mean like basic human rules in a society

again too so for example in the USA

people have the right to silence so that

means a basic rule that people have in

the

u.s. is the ability to keep their

silence about something so we cannot use

correct in that case so these are the

various uses of correct and writes I

hope that this helps you thanks for the

question ok let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Mitch

mitt mitt mitt mitt mitt mitt mitt says

hi Alicia

why don’t native speakers use specific

times and present perfect but they do

use specific times in simple past tense

ah because when we’re using the basic

form of present perfect we’re not

focusing on when in the past a specific

action occurred we just want to talk

about that life experience so the time

the point in time at which it happened

is not important or we don’t know or we

don’t want to focus on that for example

I have been to France or he has eaten

sushi in these situations for whatever

reason when that happened is not

important we just want to express our

life experience so we do not use a

specific point in time and it sounds

very unnatural to use a specific point

in time with that like present perfect

tense if however you want to use present

perfect continuous to talk about a point

at which something started and then has

continued until the present time you can

and you should use a for or since ending

to it for example I have been living in

France since 2013 or he has been

studying English for three years in

those cases we need to mark the starting

point of that action or condition so we

do use a specific point in time let’s

compare this then to using simple past

tense when we use simple past tense we

want to express an action that started

and it finished in the past and so we do

use a specific point in time for example

I went to France last summer or he ate

sushi last week so in sum if you want to

just share a general life experience use

the regular present perfect tense if you

want to talk about something that

started in the past and continues to the

present use present perfect continuous

and include a specific point in time at

which your actions started or

or like when your condition started if

you want to talk about something that’s

done that’s over and you want to talk

about the specific point in which that

thing happened use simple past tense so

I hope that this helps you thanks very

much for the question

okay let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from late Jerry hi

late Jerry late Jerry says hi Alicia a

lot of people use double negation lately

is this a kind of innovation can we use

it is it grammatically correct for

example can’t nobody tell me nothing

nice question yeah some people who are

very strict about grammar like now and

historically consider a double negation

to be like incorrect or they think that

it’s a sign for education or something

like that but that’s not the case double

negation has existed in English for a

long time and it exists now so in some

dialects in English double negation or

multiple negation is used more commonly

than other dialects so for example I

don’t really use double negation in my

speech but in certain parts of the US or

in certain parts of England people may

use that kind of speech so I would

suggest that if it’s not natural for you

if you didn’t grow up with it if it’s

not something that you or the people

around you regularly use it’s probably

going to sound very unnatural for you to

use that so your example sentence was

can’t nobody tell me nothing that is not

a sentence I personally would use but

someone who speaks a different dialect

of English that uses this kind of

negation might if I wanted to say that

sentence I would say something like

nobody can tell me anything that’s how I

would say it so using the other sentence

would sound very unnatural for me that

kind of speech is not natural for me so

it sounds perhaps rude maybe or

offensive for me to use that I would say

just try to be aware of the people who

are around you if you are learning

English in a place where a double

negation is common then perhaps it’s

natural for you to use a bit of it as

well if you’re just kind of trying to

mimic something that maybe you heard on

TV or

music or in media or something like that

it’s probably going to sound very

unnatural so yes it is used yes it is

featured actually in some dialects of

English that doesn’t mean that it’s

natural for everyone to use if this kind

of speech is hard for you to understand

don’t worry this is just another part of

language learning and this is a specific

way that some people speak in English so

while yes it does go against like

traditional grammar rules I suppose that

doesn’t mean that the communication is

any less valid so try to keep that in

mind and again if it’s difficult for you

to understand people who speak this way

that’s okay just with time and practice

you will gradually come to know what

that sentence means or what that speaker

is actually saying so I hope that this

helps you thanks very much for an

interesting question okay that is

everything that I have for this week

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Alisha and I will see you again next

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