How to Use Gerunds in English Basic English Grammar
wanna speak real English from your first
lesson sign up for your free lifetime
account at English class 101.com
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
thank you as always for sending your
questions remember you can send them to
me in English class 101.com / ask -
Alicia of course if you liked this
week’s video please don’t forget to give
it a thumbs up subscribe to our channel
if you haven’t already and check us out
at English class 101.com for some other
things that can help you with your
English Studies thanks very much for
watching this week’s episode of ask
Alisha and I will see you again next
week bye bye you want to speed up your
language learning take your very first
lesson with us you’ll start speaking in
minutes and master real conversations
sign up for your free lifetime account
just click the link in the description